page_title: Procedural impropriety in Singapore administrative law
section_title: Private communication with material witness
hierarchical_section_title: Procedural impropriety in Singapore administrative law / Natural justice and the duty to act fairly / Fair hearing / Fair conduct of the hearing / Private communication with material witness
caption_attribution_description: English: The headquarters of the Law Society of Singapore at 39 South Bridge Road, Singapore 058673.
context_page_description: Procedural impropriety in Singapore administrative law is one of the three broad categories of judicial review, the other two being illegality and irrationality. A public authority commits procedural impropriety if it fails to properly observe either statutory procedural requirements, or common law rules of natural justice and fairness.
  The common law rules of natural justice consist of two pillars: impartiality and fair hearing. The rule against bias divides bias into three categories: actual bias, imputed bias and apparent bias. There are currently two formulations of the test for apparent bias, known as the "real likelihood of bias" test and the "reasonable suspicion of bias" test. Some controversy exists as to whether there is in fact any material difference in the two formulations.
context_section_description: Members of a tribunal should not communicate independently or privately to any material witness. If they do so, the fact that communication has occurred must be disclosed to the parties concerned right away. The justification for this rule is that it would be unfair for a person to be judged on an issue based on information obtained by an adjudicator which is unknown to that person. In Re Low Fook Cheng Patricia (1998), a lawyer appealed to set aside the penalty for misconduct imposed on her by the Law Society of Singapore. The appeal was based on the ground that the chairman of the Inquiry Committee had contacted a witness to enquire if the witness could assist the committee in its inquiry, but this was not made known to the appellant. Judicial Commissioner Choo Han Teck considered such an act of private communication with a material witness as "pierc[ing] the veritable armour of impartiality which every tribunal exercising judicial or quasi-judicial functions must don". Thus, the penalty imposed by the Law Society was set aside.
caption: The Law Society of Singapore's headquarters along South Bridge Road. A disciplinary penalty imposed on a lawyer by the Society was set aside by the High Court in a 1998 case because the chairman of the Inquiry Committee had contacted a witness without informing the lawyer.
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