Criminal appeals against decisions of the High Court

When: within 14 days after the date of the sentence or order

A Notice of Appeal is a form that indicates your intention to appeal. You need to file your appeal via eLitigation within 14 days after the date of the judgment, sentence or order. This includes the weekends, but excludes the day on which the sentence was made.

Note: If you miss the deadline, you have to file a criminal motion to the Court of Appeal to apply for an extension of time to appeal.

For the Notice of Appeal, you will need to fill in your:

• Case information (Case number, date, court number, parties involved).
• Address, to receive the appeal documents.
• NRIC number and contact number.

The Court of Appeal will prepare the record of proceedings and send you a notice to collect the documents at the Supreme Court Legal Registry.

The record of proceedings include:

• Grounds of decision: The court’s reasons for its decision.
• Notes of evidence: A word-for-word transcript of what was said in court during the trial or plead guilty mention.
• Exhibits: Documents or objects presented as evidence during the trial.

Note: You need to pay $0.50 per page to collect the grounds of decision. The court staff will inform you of how much to pay when you collect it.

When: within 14 days after service of the notice for the record of proceedings

A Petition of Appeal states the grounds (reasons) on which you are appealing against the court’s decision. To continue with the appeal, file a Petition of Appeal via eLitigation within 14 days after service of the notice to collect the record of proceedings.

Note: If you miss the deadline, you have to file a criminal motion to the Court of Appeal to apply for an extension of time to appeal.

If you do not file within the deadline, the court will treat your appeal as withdrawn and enforce its sentence or order.

When: by 4pm on the Monday 3 weeks before the appeal hearing

After you have filed the Petition of Appeal, the Court of Appeal will inform you of your appeal hearing date by post and email.

You need to submit these documents by 4pm on the Monday 3 weeks before your appeal hearing:

File skeletal arguments via eLitigation

• Skeletal arguments are an outline of the arguments you intend to present in court. View the Supreme Court Practice Directions for guidelines.
• File the document via eLitigation.

Submit the bundle of authorities to the Legal Registry

• Authorities include the relevant cases, statutes, subsidiary legislation and other materials that support your arguments. View the Supreme Court Practice Directions for guidelines.
• Compile the bundle of authorities in a CD, prepare 4 sets of hard copies and visit the Supreme Court Legal Registry to submit these.

• Part XIV of the Supreme Court Practice Directions on electronic filing and service of documents for the Supreme Court.
• Part XV of the Supreme Court Practice Directions on the use of technology facilities in the Supreme Court.
• Paragraph 90 of the Supreme Court Practice Directions on skeletal arguments.