Can a hospital, or a police station deny service based on a dress code?

Описание: Can a hospital, or a police station deny service based on a dress code?

On January 30, 2023, a woman had been involved in a car accident. She wore an above-knee shorts. The Kajang Police Headquarters turned her away.

On 13 February, a woman was turned away by a Hospital because it was 'impolite for her to wear shorts'. She had to change into trousers before she was admitted.

In both these cases a dress code was cited as the reason for the denial of service. Both issues concerned government installations.

Can government installations have a legal right to turn people away based on their dressing?


What does the law say about that?

In 1995, Malaysia ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women.

Again, there is an internationally accepted Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials.


There is a similar convention for medical professionals.

Every doctor takes the Hippocratic oath. The doctor swears that “The health of my patient will be my first consideration'.

It would be ridiculous to argue that “My patient’s dress code should be my first concern”.

The Malaysian Constitution

Article 8(1) states that:
'[All] persons are equal before the law and are entitled to equal protection of the law.'

Under Article 5(1):
'[No] person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty save in accordance with the law.'

What is the meaning of the phrase 'save in accordance with the law'?

Could a police station or a hospital say: “Under our rules you cannot enter our installation unless you wear a decent dress”?

In 2010, in a case called Sivarasa Rasiah, the Malaysian Federal court ruled that “in accordance with the law” meant a law must be 'fair and just' and not, a law that was, ‘arbitrary or unjust’.

If a dress code was arbitrary or unjust’, that would violate fundamental rights.




Two questions arise from this proposition

Q-1: Can the Government stop people from entering government installations based on a dress code?

Q-2: Is a Government Dress Code within the Constitution?


Most Government Dress Codes are instructions to the Civil Service: e.g. Government Service Circular No. 2/1985 directs how civil servants (not all citizens) must dress.

Under the principle in the Sivarasa Rasiah case, is such a law 'fair' or 'just'?

A law that prevents a patient from approaching a hospital or a member of the public from approaching a police station cannot be 'fair' or 'just'.

Such directives offend the fundamental liberties in Articles 5 and 8 of the Constitution.

The Federal Court has also ruled on what the word 'life' means

What has all this have to do with a woman who enters a police station – or a hospital – with a pair of shorts?

It has to do with the concept of what is ‘life’.

Several cases have ruled that the 'right to life' in Article 5 (1) was 'more than mere animal existence'.

Are not police protection and medical assistance from a hospital, 'bare necessities of life'?

If a hospital has rules that exclude that right, those rules do not give ‘dignity’ to a member of the public. These dress codes are in breach of the Federal Constitution.

Equality and Article 8

As a multicultural nation, in Malaysia, there is a co-mingling of different communities, and adherents of different creeds.

What is accepted by one community could be discouraged in another.

If a person in one community thought wearing shorts was improper, that does not mean that every lady dressed in shorts in another community was therefore, ‘improper’, ‘impolite’ or ‘immoral’.

In a government installation, a person is in need of emergency assistance. It is illegal to deny that need.


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