Madina Beevi Abdul Jameel v M Akbar Bin Mohamed Ibrahim

Case Significance

Madina Beevi Abdul Jameel v M Akbar bin Mohamed Ibrahim (Official Assignee, non-party) [2024] SGHC 199 was a grounds of decision of the General Division of the High Court delivered by Goh Yihan J on 2 August 2024, following a hearing on 25 July 2024. It concerned Registrar's Appeal No 102 of 2024 in Bankruptcy No 3631 of 2023 and addressed the dismissal of a bankruptcy application for "sufficient cause" under section 316(1)(e) of the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act 2018 (2020 Rev Ed). The respondent and claimant was Madina Beevi Abdul Jameel, represented by Anand s/o K Thiagarajan of AKT Legal Chambers; the appellant and defendant was M Akbar bin Mohamed Ibrahim, with the Official Assignee as a non-party.

The judgment recorded that the appeal was brought by the defendant against the Assistant Registrar's decision in HC/B 3631/2023, in which the Assistant Registrar had made a bankruptcy order against the defendant along with consequential orders. The defendant had appeared in person before the Assistant Registrar but engaged counsel for the appeal and raised issues not previously argued. Goh Yihan J dismissed the appeal, holding that, unlike the High Court decision in K Shanker Kumar v Nedumaran Muthukrishnan (Official Assignee, non-party) [2023] SGHC 214, there was no "sufficient cause" under the IRDA to dismiss the creditor's bankruptcy application.