Federal Court case of SEE TEOW KOON v KIAN JOO CAN FACTORY BERHAD & ORS
The applicant therein applied to the Federal Court for a review of an earlier decision of the Federal Court striking out the applicant's notice of appeal under r 137 of the Rules of the Federal Court 1995.
The Federal Court ruled that, in the exercise of discretion under r 137, it was not a matter of whether this Court agreed or otherwise with the earlier decision or course of conduct. That was irrelevant as that was not the intent of the rare and minimal powers of review. The power was there to prevent miscarriage of justice or abuse of process, which was apparent from the face of the records.
This rare and exceptional inherent power was not invoked to review the Court's own decisions on their merits; otherwise, litigation would have no finality. The Court further held that, in the instant case, there was no call or justification for exercising this inherent jurisdiction.
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