THE LAW SOCIETY OF SINGAPORE v NEDUMARAN MUTHUKRISHNAN

Case Significance

Law Society of Singapore v Nedumaran Muthukrishnan [2024] SGHC 218 was decided by a Court of 3 Supreme Court Judges, comprising Tay Yong Kwang JCA (delivering the grounds of decision of the court), Debbie Ong Siew Ling JAD and Judith Prakash SJ, heard on 4 July 2024 and decided on 29 August 2024, in Originating Application No 14 of 2023. The matter concerned disciplinary proceedings under the Legal Profession Act 1966 (2020 Rev Ed). According to the grounds of decision, the respondent, Mr Nedumaran Muthukrishnan, was admitted as an advocate and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore on 25 May 1996 and faced four charges before a Disciplinary Tribunal constituted under s 90(1) of the Legal Profession Act, and he claimed trial to all four charges.

The first charge alleged that, in breach of Rule 5(2)(a) of the Legal Profession (Professional Conduct) Rules 2015, the respondent was not honest in his dealings with his client, Chan Yee Huat, in that between 17 March 2020 and 17 April 2020 he misled the client into believing that he had or would shortly be posting or hand-delivering cheques for payment of persons nominated by the client, in circumstances where he did not do so and had no intention of doing so, and was thereby alleged to be guilty of improper conduct or practice within the meaning of s 83(2)(b) of the Legal Profession Act. The grounds of decision refer to the Legal Profession Act and the Rules of the Legal Profession Act. The applicant, the Law Society of Singapore, was represented by Teo Yi Hui of Pointer LLC. The judgment head is truncated and does not set out the court's ultimate disposition of the charges.