RE RAJAT KUMAR

CACV 324/2021

[2022] HKCA 1263

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF APPEAL

CIVIL APPEAL NO 324 OF 2021

(ON APPEAL FROM HCAL 2037 OF 2018)

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J U D G M E N T

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Hon Barma JA (giving the Judgment of the Court):

1.  On 6 December 2021, this court (Barma JA and Lisa Wong J)  handed down a judgment dismissing the applicant’s appeal against the decision of Deputy High Court Judge Bruno Chan given on 17 June 2021 refusing leave to the applicant to apply for judicial review. The applicant had sought to review the decision of the Torture Claims Appeal Board dismissing his appeal from the decisions of the Director of Immigration rejecting his non-refoulement claim.

2.  The facts and issues in the appeal, as well as the court’s reasons for dismissing it, are set out in our judgment.[1]  We will not repeat them here.

3.  The applicant subsequently applied, by a Notice of Motion filed on 20 December 2021, for leave to appeal to the Court of Final Appeal.  In the Notice of Motion, the applicant contended that he was unable to understand the decision of this court, and was only able to lodge the Notice of Appeal and written submissions through the assistance of a friend.

4.  In breach of Practice Direction 2.1, the applicant lodged his written submissions late, by 2 days.  Given the short delay, we have exceptionally considered the submissions, which restated the alleged prejudice caused to him by reason of a lack of language assistance (although the applicant acknowledged at [9] that interpretation services were available to him at every stage of the proceedings below).

5.  Having considered the applicant’s Notice of Motion and written submissions, we see no reason to depart from the usual practice of determining an application of this kind on the papers.  We have, therefore, determined the applicant’s application on the basis of the documents filed.

6.  The matters stated by the applicant do not constitute grounds for granting leave to appeal to the Court of Final Appeal. The applicant has failed to identify any question of great general or public importance for the Court of Final Appeal to determine, as required by section 22(1)(b)  of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal Ordinance, Cap 484.  Nor is any such question apparent to us from the matters he has raised.

7.  Neither the Notice of Motion nor the written submissions identify any supposed error in our judgment and they raise no ground that is reasonably arguable before the Court of Final Appeal.

8.  We also do not see any basis for granting leave on the “otherwise” limb under section 22(1)(b).

9.  For these reasons, the Notice of Motion dated 20 December 2021 is dismissed.