Ex-student loses appeal over iPhone hidden in underwear during SPM trial
KUALA LUMPUR: Schools cannot examine the contents of students’ mobile phones without legal authority, the High Court has ruled.
A former student has lost an appeal over being forced to surrender her iPhone during a spot check for suspected cheating during her SPM trial exam. The High Court ruled that schools cannot legally inspect the digital contents of confiscated mobile phones without explicit legal authority. The High Court dismissed the appeal by Nur Nabilah Ahmad Zambala, who had sued her teachers and the government for negligence and defamation.
Judge Yusrin Faidz Yusoff stated that while confiscating the phone was allowed, inspecting its digital content was beyond the school's legal authority. The judge also found that the school had not followed proper procedures for confiscating the phone, but ruled that this procedural error did not constitute negligence as the teachers acted reasonably in investigating the cheating.
The ruling also noted that the school's failure to investigate how Nabilah obtained confidential SPM trial examination materials was more serious than her possession of a phone during the exam.
Written by urgent.news from New Straits Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
