ABSTRACT
The presumption of constitutionality was first applied in Singapore in cases involving Article 12(1) of the Constitution, which guarantees rights to equality before the law and the equal protection of the law. The presumption is said to apply with full force to post-independence laws as these were 'promulgated in the context of, inter alia, an elected legislature which, it can be assumed, would have fully considered all views before enacting the laws concerned'. This would include section 37(1) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, the constitutionality of which was questioned in Taw Cheng Kong. The Government is relieved of the need to produce evidence to justify the constitutionality of the law or action. If the Singapore Government declines to stipulate to facts as the respondent in Yick Wo did, it appears that an applicant may have to incur the potentially substantial expense of arranging for statistically significant surveys to be conducted in order to have cogent evidence to adduce.
