Apex Court Rejects Constitutional Challenge Against Provisions in Misuse of Drugs Act

It says so-called MDA presumptions do not 'shift' overall legal burden of the prosecution

- Selina Lum

The highest court in Singapore has rejected a constitutional challenge against provisions in the Misuse of Drugs Act (MDA) that place the onus on an accused drug trafficker to rebut certain presumed facts.

On Aug 28, a five-judge Court of Appeal panel, led by Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, ruled that the so-called MDA presumptions do not violate the Constitution.

These provisions operate by presuming that an accused person was in possession of drugs or knew the nature of those drugs when a basic fact is proved.

The presumptions are rebuttable, but the burden is on the accused person to disprove the presumed facts.

For instance, a person who has the keys to a place where illicit drugs were found is presumed to have had those drugs in his possession, until proven otherwise.

In a similar vein, a person who has drugs in his possession is presumed to have known the nature of the drugs, until the contrary is proved.

In a written judgment, the judges noted that the presumptions are in place "as a legislative choice to address a problem that is thought to be a scourge on society".

The court said one facet of the legislative purpose of the presumptions was to overcome the evidential difficulty of proving the state of mind of the accused person.

But Parliament's decision to enable the prosecution to rely on these presumptions must also be seen alongside its strong policy stance taken to strengthen the hands of the enforcement agencies against drug trafficking.