Kula & Associates

Time to punish an Unpunished Genocide The worst genocide of the 21st century was against the Tamils in Sri Lanka culminating in the blood bath in May 2009. Sri Lanka has a great history of impunity, mass graves, disappearances, torture, rape, murder and white van abductions. Sri Lanka has committed some of the most heinous crimes against its own people, be it the Tamils or the Sinhalese in the post II world war period.  The climax of it was the massacre of Tamil civilians in May 2009. There are 146,679 people unaccounted, 90,000 war widows, a minimum of 40,000 war orphans, 160,000 houses destroyed according to UN estimates, 7,000 square kilometers of land belonging to the Tamils in a total of 18,000 sq kms inhabited by them under the control of the army. The Sri Lankan government has time and again stated that it would device its own mechanism to try the violations its armed forces and politicians committed since 2002. The government has categorically stated that they...

The High Court judge should have granted judicial review on the delineation process. It is imperative for a judicial institution such high court to address issues of national importance if there is substance that would make a case for judicial review what more if it involves voters ‘rights in the spirit of 13 schedule of the federal constitution. This was not adhered to in the following case.  The first delineation inquiry was held in Ipoh on 1.11.2016 relating to objection from Ipoh Barat and Ipoh Timur voters on factual accounts of distorted electoral roll which categorically denies voters equitable   representation in State   Assemblies and Parliament   and the manipulation   of boundaries   to   favour   certain   parties.   These   have   basically   violated   the   one   man   one   vote principle that...

Criminal Evidence that do not stand up to scrutiny violates constitutional rights The cause of justice is served when its evidence is able to withstand scrutiny. Fair trials in court are the result of honest narratives leading to the truth. Such constitutional principles are sometimes violated. Recently, our client was charged for allegedly trafficking in persons under Section 26A of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007. Pursuant to Section 51A of the Criminal Procedure Code, the Prosecution handed to us ‘all the relevant files’ that will be used throughout the trial. However, when the trial was about to commence, the Prosecution handed us 2 Depositions by persons who were alleged to be smuggled by our client. These Depositions were taken in accordance with Section 61A of the abovementioned Act, 3 months after we have been on record and after attending numerous CM and Mentions. This Section allows Deposition to be taken in front of a M...

A TYPICAL CASE OF POLICE  ABUSED AUTHORITY David Carter ( 1985,322) offers perhaps the most comprehensive definition of police abuse authority, arguing that it is best described as an action by a police officer without regard to motive, intent or malice that tends to injure,insult,tread on human dignity, manifest feeling of inferiority and /or violate an inherent legal right of a member of public. Carters definition considers three broad areas of police abuse including, physical, psychology and legal domains. This is what happened on 06.05.2014. Our client was in his house with his wife, when 4 plainclothes men that identified themselves verbally as policemen entered his house. The 4 plainclothes policemen handcuffed our client in his bedroom. Subsequently our client was interrogated in the living room with regards to some drugs to which our client denied any knowledge there of whatsoever. After much insistence, they went out of the client’s house, brought in s...

A couple of days ago, a group of Orangs Asal (Indigenous People) called to discuss the aggravate situation where pollutes their inhabitants at the Sungkai and Kampar in Perak. Apparently, the State Government has approved the Perak Hydro Renewable Energy dam to be built upstream in Sg.Slim. However, Orang Asal inhabitants has been adversely affected by the ongoing development projects. And also, the water supply has been affected due to the construction. Massive deforestation is threatening the way of life of the indigenous populations and causing environmental catastrophes. Rivers run dry and food sources are threatened as a result of persistent development, threatening the way of life for the indigenous people. Our team of lawyers will assist them to strive, protect and strengthen their rights. Soon, we will visit the affected areas to see it with our own eyes.

AMPANG POMELO FARMERS             On the 27 th February 2017, we visited a pomelo farm in Ampang, Ipoh. This site has been harvested for pomelo primarily together with durians and fish farming since the 1940’s. The plight of the farmers came to our attention via Y.B Chee Kin, the assemblyman for Bercham. The current farmers and their forefathers and siblings have been harvesting the land for more than 70 years. Since the 1940’s, there has been no problems of them occupying the land from the government. Since the 1980’s they actually were encouraged to apply for alienation of the said land from the state government. The farmers were given Temporary Occupational Licenses (TOL) to harvest the land. Subsequently, they followed all procedures by the state government to alienate the land to their names until 2015. Suddenly, they received a letter from the Land Office that their applications have been reject...

Mohd Zafari was arrested by the police for allegedly snapping nude photos of his potential sister in law at that time. However even after showing the police that no such pictures were in his handphone, he was still kept by the police for 4 days and his handphone hasn't been returned to him. M Kula Segaran has raised this matter for revision at the Ipoh High Court and the case is coming up for mention on the 10th March 2017.

Young Girls were forced to work as waitresses. RM10million to quit? In the picture above is father and daughter Yew Sun Chow & Yew Chooi Fen. The daughter lied to her father by saying she was working in cosmetics, but instead she working at a” Pub”. He eventually asked YB Thomas Su and YB Chong Chee Kin for help to” save” his daughter. Furthermore, including the RM10million compensation that needs to be paid, Yew Chooi Fen and 11 other girls, all Chinese must stay in the boarding house provided and are not allowed to go out as they like. Her “boss” also stated that after work, they must immediately go back to the house to eat dinner, if found that they gained 5kg in weight, every kg they gained must pay RM 30 and they will not be allowed to eat. YB Kula who was the counsel for the young girl who has since left the “Pub” commented that the case by her “boss” who initiated the suit has been struck out.

P UTRAJAYA, Dec 30 ― The Court of Appeal today reversed a lower court’s order quashing the unilateral conversion of M. Indira Gandhi’s three children to Islam, in a critical blow to the Hindu mother’s battle against her Muslim ex-spouse. In a 2-1 decision today, the three-judge panel headed by Datuk Balia Yusof Haji Wahi also ruled that the civil courts have no jurisdiction over the Islamic matter, which it said was solely the purview of the Shariah courts. “Having heard the submission from all parties and having considered the plethora of cases submitted before us, we are of the majority view in this court that, taking the subject matter approach, it is beyond the shadow of doubt that whether a person is Muslim or not falls strictly under the Shariah court. “We accordingly allow the three appeals and we set aside the decision of the learned JC (Judicial Commisioner) and we make no order as to cost and for the deposits to be refunded,” Balia said reading the decision. Indira had sec...