Tan Tek Seng v Suruhanjaya Perkhidmatan Pendidikan & Another [1996] 1 MLJ 261 was a case heard in the Court of Appeal of Malaysia.
The case concerned the allegedly wrongful dismissal of Tan Tek Seng, a senior assistant of a primary school.
In ruling in his favour, the Court of Appeal held that Articles 5 and 8 of the Constitution, which protect personal liberty and equality under the law, must be read with a liberal and not literal approach.
[1] In his judgment, Gopal Sri Ram held: [Judges] should, when discharging their duties as interpreters of the supreme law, adopt a liberal approach in order to implement the true intention of the framers of the Federal Constitution.
The Federal Court later revisited the issue in 2009, and ruled in Lee Kwan Woh v. Public Prosecutor that constitutional rights, including those under Article 5, must be read in a generous and liberal fashion.