Lee Swee Seng JCA:

[1] These combined appeals raise the intriguing question as to whether the principle of restrictive immunity applies in the context of the dismissal of a workman, engaged as a security guard, in a reference by the Minister to the Industrial Court under s 20 of the Industrial Relations Act 1967 ("IRA") where the employer is a sovereign state in The United States of America ("The USA").

[2] The USA had made the challenge by way of a Judicial Review application to the High Court arguing that state immunity applied and that the Minister of Human Resource ("Minister") was wrong in law to have referred the dispute to the Industrial Court. At the High Court the Minister was the 1st respondent, the Industrial Court the 2nd respondent and the workman the 3rd respondent.

[3] The USA had prayed for a certiorari to quash the reference by the Minister and a prohibition against the Industrial Court from adjudicating the Minister's reference. There was also a prayer for a declaration that the workman and The USA and its Embassy are immune from the jurisdiction of the Industrial Court.