CHARGES

Purpose
• Served as a notice to the offender of the
matter accused , it must be clear and certain
• Information to the court which is to try
 Particulars

• The particulars of the charge which are

important:
– Time and place of the offence
– Nature of the offence
– Law against which the offence is alleged to have
been committed
 Section 153
• Every charge shall contain time and place of
the offence
• Case: Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim
– A charge that does not spesify a date is not
necessarily defective.
• See also the case of Hussin bin Silit and Sanusi
Mat Karto where there is no spesific time but
there is spesific place
 Person or Thing
• Charge shall contain particulars of the person,
or a thing relating to the offence committed.
• The thing that involved in the offence also
must be clearly spesified.
• Case: Tan Ann Chye
– The court could not find the scheduled drugs
called mixed heroin
 Nature of the offence
• The nature of the offence must be stated in the charge.
• If :
– It has spesific name, it shall be described by that name. e.g: rape
– It has no spesific name, the definition is necessary to fulfill the
purpose must be included. E.g: it is necessary to include those
essentials elements. If the words are material to the charge,
omission of it would render it defective. Common gaming
house / public place.
– It has no spesific name and definition is insufficient, the
particulars of the manner which the offence was committed is
necessary
• Description to the offence
– There are two types of averment:
• A reference to the elements or ingredients of the statutory
offence. E.g: extortion
• Particulars which are not ingredients but it has details of the crime
• Section 154 requires the charge to contain particulars
of the manner, section 152 and 153 do not give special
notice.
• It deals with the nature of the act rather than the act
itself. E.g: cheating : it has to explain the deception
done
• Case: Muthiah Pillay
• Illustration (b)
 Law and section
• Section 154(2) : law and section against which the offence is
said to have committed shall be mentioned in the charge.
• It has to be the substantive punishment section not the
definition section. (Rogayah bte Che Mat)
• When there is error in quoting the law if the offence
required to prove is set out in the charge, it is a curable
provided there is no miscarriage of justice.
• However, quoting wrong punishable section would render
the charge defective. (Pang Neng Tiong: attempted robbery
should be charged under section 397 not section 393 to be
read together with section 511)