Contempt-of-court orders filed by AGC against lawyer M Ravi over 2 court cases

SINGAPORE — The Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) has begun legal proceedings against lawyer M Ravi for contempt of court, in relation to his conduct during two separate court proceedings in November last year.

In a media statement on Tuesday (Feb 22), AGC said that it had filed the application on Feb 18 but the hearing dates for the application have not yet been scheduled.

Attorney-General Lucien Wong applied for the committal orders against Mr Ravi due to his conduct at a civil trial in the High Court in the case of a former bus driver by the name of Chua Qwong Meng against transport operator SBS Transit.

The other case involved a criminal prosecution in the State Courts where Mr Ravi was acting for Magendran Muniandy, a 33-year-old Malaysian facing forgery charges.

It is the Attorney-General's position that Mr Ravi had acted in a “manner that was contemptuous of the respective courts”, AGC said in its statement.

Among other things, he is said to have made unfounded allegations of bias against the judges as well as persistently interrupting the judges in the course of the court proceedings.

In the High Court case involving the bus drivers, AGC alleged that Mr Ravi took legal positions without obtaining or confirming his client’s instructions.

Mr Ravi also misrepresented his availability to conduct the proceedings in the criminal prosecution case. Court documents showed that Mr Ravi has been discharged from the case.

The High Court and State Courts made separate complaints to the Attorney-General in December last year in respect to Mr Ravi’s conduct.

“Following careful consideration of the complaints, on Jan 7, 2022, the AGC filed applications for leave to apply for committal orders against Mr Ravi for contempt of court.”

The High Court then granted such leave in the civil trial and the criminal prosecution on Feb 7 and 11 respectively. Following the grant of leave, the applications for committal orders against Mr Ravi for contempt of court were filed on Feb 18.

AGC stressed that contempt of court in its various forms “impedes the proper administration of justice in Singapore”.

“Left unchecked, such conduct can obstruct the determination of the truth and erode respect for our judicial institutions.

“This would harm the public interest in the proper administration of justice. AGC takes a serious view of this and will not hesitate to take firm action against those who engage in such conduct.”

Separately, AGC has filed two disciplinary complaints to the Law Society of Singapore against Mr Ravi and his supervising solicitor Cheng Kim Kuan from law firm K K Cheng Law LLC.

“The complaints relate to alleged misconduct by Mr Ravi in his conduct of legal cases as well as breaches by Mr Ravi and Mr Cheng of their professional undertakings to the Supreme Court of Singapore and the Council of the Law Society, in relation to the conditions imposed on Mr Ravi’s practising certificate for practice year 2021/2022,” it said, adding that the complaints are now pending before the Law Society.