Awal Mohammad Rabiul v. Torture Claims Appeal Board / Non-refoulement Claims Petition Office

CAMP 224/2019

[2019] HKCA 1108

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF APPEAL

MISCELLANEOUS PROCEEDINGS NO 224 OF 2019

(ON AN INTENDED APPEAL FROM HCAL NO 1714 OF 2018)

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BETWEEN

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J U D G M E N T

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1.The applicant filed a summons on 6 September 2019 seeking to appeal against the decision of Deputy High Court Judge K W Lung dated 15 August 2019 refusing to give him leave to apply for judicial review.

2.Pursuant to Order 53, rule 3(4) of the Rules of the High Court (Cap 4A), an applicant may appeal to the Court of Appeal against a judge’s order refusing leave to apply for judicial review within 14 days after such refusal.  In the present case, leave is not required for the applicant to appeal against the said order of Deputy High Court Judge Lung.  As the period of the summer vacation shall be excluded in reckoning the prescribed period, he was still within the 14-day period at the time he filed the summons on 6 September 2019. 

3.The Registrar of Civil Appeals gave directions on the present proceedings on 6 September 2019 and the applicant was informed of those directions by a letter of the High Court dated 9 September 2019.  By those directions, the applicant was informed that he should have lodged a “notice of appeal” instead of a “summons” and he was directed to do so on or before 24 September 2019 and to set out his grounds of appeal in the notice of appeal, failing which his notice of appeal may be struck out without further notice. 

4.The applicant failed to file a notice of appeal as directed.  The appeal period has since expired.  He has not made any application for extension of time to appeal in the court below.  On the available materials, there is nothing to indicate that he should be allowed to make such an application for extension of time to the Court of Appeal directly.

5.For the above reasons, I dismiss the summons filed on 6 September 2019.

The Applicant, acting in person