Right to oral hearing in staff disciplinary proceeding

Staff disciplinary matters for statutory body are governed primarily under the Statutory Bodies (Discipline and Surcharge) Act 2000. It provides overall procedure on the running of a staff disciplinary proceedings. Right to be heard is undeniably an important component of natural justice that must exist and be sufficiently accorded to the accused staff. Question arose as to the existence of right to oral hearing, namely whether such right must be accorded to the accused staff or not. This article will share some light on the exercisability of such right in the context of the Statutory Bodies (Discipline and Surcharge) Act 2000 and also in the light of the case of Yusof Sudin v. Suruhanjaya Perkhidmatan Polis & Anor [2012] 1 CLJ 448.