RE RANAPEHALI PRIYA

HCAL 20/2018

[2019] HKCFI 2142

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CONSTITUTIONAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE LAW LIST

NO 20 OF 2018

________________________

REASONS FOR DECISION

________________________

1.  On 26 July 2019 I refused to grant leave to the applicant to apply for judicial review of the decision of the Torture Claims Appeal Board (“the Board”) dismissing her appeal regarding her non-refoulement claim upon finding it was her second such application regarding the Board’s decision after it was first refused by Deputy High Court Judge Woodcock under HCAL 101/2017 and hence the principle of res judicata applied, and that it was an abuse of process by the applicant to re-litigate her case by bringing a second judicial review in respect of the same decision of the Board after failing to obtain leave from the Court in her previous application.

2.  The applicant now by a summons dated 12 August 2019 seeks leave to appeal against that decision out of time, as it was thought that the 14-day period for her to file her appeal under Order 53, rule 3(4) of the Rules of the High Court, Cap 4A had ended on 9 August 2019, and that she thought that she was out of time with her intended appeal.

3.  The applicant is in fact not out of time with her intended appeal,as under Order 3, rule 3 the period of the Summer Vacation, namely from 1 to 31 August is to be excluded from reckoning any period prescribed by the rules or by any order or direction for serving, filing or amending any pleading, hence with the exclusion of the month of August 2019, the 14-day period for the applicant to file her notice of appeal will not expire until 9 September 2019.

4.  In the premises it was unnecessary for the applicant to seek leave to appeal out of time, and accordingly her summons is therefore dismissed.