PRESUMPTIONS

Amirul Iman Bin Anuar LEB 090005

MEANING OF PRESUMPTION

The Concise Oxford Dictionary

of Law defines a presumption as
a supposition that the law allows
or requires to be made.

PURPOSE OF PRESUMPTIONS
Certain facts are presumed by law as a matter of
common sense or policy and the purpose of presumptions
is to determine who bears the burden of proof and
standard of proof to presume or to rebut such facts.
However, it should be noted that certain presumptions
are irrebuttable by law eg a child below 10 years old is
incapable of committing a crime (doli incapax)
Generally, the law does not allow a presumption to be
based on another presumption ie no double presumption.

EFFECT ON THE BURDEN AND

S TA N D A R D O F P R O O F
The party who relies on the presumption has the legal burden to
prove that certain basic facts exist before such presumption may be
invoked.
Then the other party has the legal burden to rebut the presumption.
The standard of proof depends on whether the party is (PP v Yuvaraj
[1969]; Mohd Radhi bin Yaakob v PP [1991] )
In criminal cases:
(i) the prosecution beyond a reasonable doubt
(ii) the accused on a balance of probabilities
In civil cases:
Plaintiff or defendant on a balance of probabilities.

EFFECT ON THE BURDEN AND

S TA N D A R D O F P R O O F

For example, to rely on the presumption of drug

trafficking, the prosecution has the legal burden to
prove beyond reasonable doubt that the accused
was found in possession of a specified weight of
the scheduled drug. The accused then has the
legal burden to rebut the presumption on a
balance of probabilities.

TYPES OF PRESUMPTIONS
Presumptions may be group into
(i) Presumption of fact s.4 (1) EA 1950;
(ii) Presumption of law s.4 (2) EA 1950;
(iii) Irrebuttable presumption of law
s.4(3) EA 1950.

PRESUMPTIONS GENERAL IN
N AT U R E
S.114 EA 1950 The court may presume the existence of any
fact which it thinks it likely to have happened, regard being had
to the common course of natural events, human conduct, and
public and private business, in their relation to the facts of the
particular case.
The presumptions are given in Illustrations (a) (i) which are
not exhaustive as held in PP v Krishna Rao A/L Gurumuthi.
The court shall also have regard to the facts given in (i) (ix) in
relation to the illustrations.