Defence lawyer M. Ravi's application for the High Court to determine if the Singapore Cabinet has the same protection as an individual under the Constitution was thrown out yesterday by a district judge.
Mr Ravi's client, Daniel Augustin De Costa, is accused of defaming members of the Singapore Cabinet in an article he allegedly contributed to sociopolitical website The Online Citizen (TOC) last year.
On the first day of the trial yesterday, the lawyer raised a question on whether the phrase "the reputation of such person" under Section 499 of the Penal Code - which pertains to defamation - is applicable to the Cabinet, a governmental body.
Arguing that since the Cabinet is not a person, Mr Ravi said its right is not protected under Article 9 of the Constitution, which states: "No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty save in accordance with law."
As such, he said, the Cabinet does not have a reputation to protect.
His application for the question to be addressed in the High Court was rejected yesterday by District Judge Christopher Tan, who said that the matter "does not merit" a referral to the High Court.
De Costa, 36, is accused of one count each of criminal defamation and using a computer to perform unauthorised access to another man's e-mail account. He allegedly committed these offences on Sept 4 last year.
The Singaporean allegedly sent to TOC an e-mail titled "PAP MP apologises to SDP". He is said to have defamed members of the Singapore Cabinet in the e-mail, which stated there was "corruption at the highest echelons".
According to court documents, De Costa allegedly intended for the contents of the e-mail to be published on TOC.
The website's editor Xu Yuanchen, 37, better known as Terry Xu, also faces a criminal defamation charge.
Yesterday, Mr Ravi told the court that the charges against his client are unlawful, adding that "the Government has no right to sue for defamation".
The lawyer also referred to the Derbyshire principle, which is linked to a legal case in Britain in 1993 between Derbyshire County Council and Times Newspapers.
The case laid down the principle in common law that a public body is barred from suing a citizen for defamation because this would discourage free speech.
Deputy Public Prosecutors Mohamed Faizal, Shivani Retnam, Ho Lian-Yi and Sheryl Yeo stated in their submissions that the defence's arguments were "entirely without merit" and urged the court to dismiss the application.
Furthermore, De Costa had been charged over his defamatory statement concerning members of the Singapore Cabinet, and "the members of the Cabinet are clearly natural persons", stated the deputy public prosecutors.
The court heard that De Costa had stated that no one but natural persons had a reputation to protect.
Following the judge's decision, Mr Ravi said that he will be filing a criminal motion in a week and will be making a similar application at the High Court.
The trials involving De Costa and Xu are expected to resume in January next year.
