Assa Singh v. Menteri Besar of Johore (1969) 2 MLJ 30 was a case heard in the Federal Court of Malaysia concerning the applicability of the Restricted Residence Enactment 1933 (RRE) after Malaysian independence in 1957.
Assa Singh was arrested under the provisions of the RRE by the Police with a view to forcibly relocating him to another district to preserve security and public order.
Singh filed a suit claiming that this was a violation of his rights under Articles 5 (personal liberty) and 9 (freedom of movement) of the Constitution.
(Clause 6 of Article 162 permits a court to apply the pre-independence legislation by modifying it as required to conform with the Constitution.
[2]) This submission was accepted by Suffian,[4] who wrote: To sum up, in my judgment, the Restricted Residence Enactment is silent as regards the four rights guaranteed by article 5 to a person arrested under the Enactment, namely, the right to be informed as soon as may be of the grounds of his arrest, to be allowed to consult and be defended by a legal practitioner of his choice, and, if not sooner released, to be produced without unreasonable delay and in any case within 24 hours (excluding the time of any necessary journey), before a magistrate and not to be further detained without the magistrate’s order.