RE GURVINDER SINGH AND ANOTHER

HCAL 1335/2019

   [2020] HKCFI 2400

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CONSTITUTIONAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE LAW LIST

NO 1335 OF 2019

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D E C I S I O N

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1.  The Applicants are illegal immigrants from India who on 17 May 2019 filed a Form 86 for leave to apply for judicial review of the decision of the Torture Claims Appeal Board in dismissing their appeal/petition regarding their non-refoulement claim.

2.  Before their application could be heard by the court, on 11 May 2020 the registry received a letter dated 6 May 2020 from someone of the same name of the 1^st Applicant to ask to withdraw his judicial review application as he wanted to return to his home country in India due to an emergency in his family.

3.  The registry somehow erroneously believed the writer of that letter to be the 1^st Applicant and placed the request together with the court file before Deputy High Court Judge Lung for his disposal.  On 6 July 2020 the learned judge acceded to that request and made an order dismissing the leave application of the Applicants, and accordingly the Director of Immigration was so informed.      

4.  The 1^st Applicant now by a letter dated 8 September 2020 wrote urgently to the court to deny having ever written the said letter to withdraw the application, that he is not the same person named in that letter, and that he and the 2^nd Applicant want to proceed with their leave application, but that they have now been informed by the Director that they are to be deported soon as a result of that order. 

5.  Upon further investigation by the registry, it is now confirmed that the 1^st Applicant is not the same person as the writer of that letter, and hence the order made by Deputy High Court Judge Lung on 6 July 2020 was the result of mistaken identity and is therefore a nullity.

6.  In the premises I therefore set aside the order dated 6 July 2020 and direct that the leave application of the Applicants be reinstated for hearing accordingly as soon as possible.