JUDGMENT
Choo Kah Sing JCA:
Introduction
[1] On 9 February 2024, the Court of Appeal allowed a Motion (hereafter 'the Motion') filed by the appellants via B-06-3-12-2023 for a revision of its decision dated 10 July 2023 (hereafter 'the impugned decision') which was decided by a different panel of Justices of the Court of Appeal.
[2] On 18 April 2018, the Sessions Court convicted the appellants of committing an offence under s 471 of the Penal Code, and they were punished under s 467 of the Penal Code. The appellants were sentenced to 9 years imprisonment. The appellants appealed to the High Court. On 4 July 2019, the High Court affirmed the conviction and the sentence.
[3] On appeal to the Court of Appeal, the appeal was allowed in part. On 10 July 2023, the Court of Appeal allowed the 9 years' imprisonment term to be reduced to 6 years, but maintained the conviction finding.
[4] On 18 December 2023, the appellants filed the Motion to review the impugned decision. The Motion was granted, but the review was only in relation to the question of law raised by the appellants which was "whether the punishment for the conviction of the offence in s 471 Penal Code should be s 465, instead of s 467 as stated in the charge" (hereafter "the question of law").
[5] The question of law is now before us. This Court will confine its review exercise only to the question of law. Although the appellants were permitted to raise issues in the review, those issues must be confined and relevant to the question of law.
The Salient Facts Which Are Relevant To The Review
The Charges
[5] The amended charge against the 1st appellant reads as follow: