PETALING JAYA: Two lawyers have differing opinions as to whether government pensioners convicted of breaching the movement control order (MCO) will lose their pension.
Adnan Seman said government retirees who were jailed even for a day for violating the MCO would lose the benefit but lawyer Muhammad Rafique Rashid Ali disagrees.
“The pension is not a right but a privilege and could be forfeited upon conviction,” Adnan told FMT.
There are about 850,000 retired civil servants who receive pensions.
Section 21 (1) of the Pensions Act 1980 states that such pension or other benefit shall cease forthwith when any person is sentenced to death or to any term of imprisonment by a court.
Section 21 (2), however, states that the pension shall be restored with retrospective effect in the case of a person who, after conviction, receives a free pardon.
The lawyer said the pension payment would continue if the person was given other forms of sentence, such as a fine, but not a jail term.
The MCO was declared invoking the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases (Measures Within the Infected Local Areas) Regulations 2020.
Under Rule 6, offenders can be fined up to RM1,000 or up to six months’ jail, or both, if convicted for violating the MCO.
On Tuesday, Senior Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said police would be focusing less on issuing compound notices to MCO violaters and would now book them to be brought straight to court.
He said Section 24 of Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 would be relied upon from now as the punishment was harsher.
First time offenders could be punished up to two years in jail or a fine, or both, while second time offenders could be sentenced to a maximum five years imprisonment or a fine, or both.
Meanwhile, Rafique said provisions in the Pensions Act must be read together with the Registration of Criminal and Undesirable Persons Act 1969.
“Reading Section 21 in isolation could be misleading and one has to bear in mind the existence of the Registration of Criminal and Undesirable Persons Act which deals with the registration of criminals,” he added.
He said a registrar under the law had to register anyone convicted of various offences deemed to be registrable under Schedule 1 and 2.
“The Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act is not listed. Therefore, those who breach the MCO cannot be deemed to be registerable offenders,” he added.
Rafique also said police and the prosecution must make it clear under what provision of the law enforcement was being carried out.
“I understand police are relying on Section 269 of the Penal Code to detain people on grounds of negligent act that is likely to spread infection of any disease dangerous to life,” he said.
Rafique said Health Minister Adham Baba gazetted the regulation to penalise MCO offenders who refused to remain indoors but Ismail had gone public to say the parent law would be utilised as it carried a heavier penalty. - FMT
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