RE PONNAMPERUMA ARACHCHIGE DON SURANGA LANKAPRIYA

CACV 254/2018

[2019] HKCA 122

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF APPEAL

CIVIL APPEAL NO. 254 OF 2018

(ON APPEAL FROM HCAL NO. 678 OF 2017)

________________________

________________________

________________________

D E C I S I O N

________________________

Hon Cheung JA (giving the Decision of the Court) :

1)   Leave to appeal to the Court of Final Appeal

1.1   On 16 November 2018, this Court (Cheung and Pang JJA) gave judgment dismissing the applicant’s appeal against the decision of Campbell-Moffat J given on 15 June 2018 in which she refused to grant leave to the applicant to apply for judicial review.

1.2   The applicant now applies, by a notice of motion dated 30 November 2018, for leave to appeal against our judgment to the Court of Final Appeal.  We will deal with the application on paper.

1.3   The applicant stated in his Notice of Motion that :

‘ I would like to infomr the Honourable Court that there is some error in law in my decision. Decision maker just relied on COL Information and my previous facts which were in favour while rejecting my claim. Acual life occur different situation then what is mentioned in COL Information. The Officer and cours prefers to ignore the overwhelming of the evidence of this violence towards minorities searching for unrealistic silver lining. The Decision is betrary a bias and formula approach unlikely fairly access the danger of my life and clearly not reasonable.’

1.4   In his written submission of 14 December 2018, the applicant repeated the factual background of his case.  He repeated that his life is in danger.  He repeated that he would be tortured or killed if he was to be repatriated back to Sri Lanka; he has problems taking his wife and child back to his home country; his wife is from the Philippines working as a domestic helper in Hong Kong and that he is married to her in Hong Kong; his son was born in Hong Kong in 2010 and his father was involved in political activities with which he has minimal involvement.

2.   Under section 22(1)(b) of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal Ordinance (Cap. 484) (‘HKCFAO’) leave to appeal to the Court of Final Appeal will only be granted if the question to be determined involves great general or public importance or otherwise ought to be determined by the Court of Final Appeal.

3.1   The matters stated by the applicant in his Notice of Motion and written submission do not constitute grounds for granting leave to the Court of Final Appeal.  The applicant has failed to identify any question of general or public importance for the Court of Final Appeal to determine in accordance with section 22(1)(b) of the HKCFAO.  Nor is there any such question apparent to us from the matters he has raised in his Notice of Motion and written submission.

3.2   We also do not see any basis for granting leave on the ‘or otherwise’ limb under section 22(1)(b).

4.   For these reasons, the Notice of Motion dated 30 November 2018 is dismissed.