Elisa-adya Alias Adya Elisa Alias Elisa Adya v. Torture Claims Appeal Board / Non-refoulement Claims Petition Office and Another

CACV 401/2019

[2020] HKCA 116

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF APPEAL

CIVIL APPEAL NO 401 OF 2019

(ON APPEAL FROM HCAL 287 OF 2018)

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Before: Hon Kwan VP, Cheung JA and S T Poon J in Court

Date of Written Submissions:  3 January 2020

Date of Judgment:  14 May 2020

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J U D G M E N T

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Hon S T Poon J (giving the Judgment of the Court):

1.This court (Kwan VP and S T Poon) handed down judgment on 13 December 2019 ([2019] HKCA 1393) dismissing the applicant’s appeal against an order of DHCJ Josiah Lam given on 21 August 2019 refusing his application for leave to apply for judicial review concerning his non‑refoulement claim. The facts and issues in the appeal before the Court of Appeal, as well as the court’s reasons for dismissing it, are set out in our judgment and will not be repeated here.

2.The applicant filed a Notice of Motion on 23 December 2019 for leave to appeal to the Court of Final Appeal and lodged his written submissions on 3 January 2019.

3.Pursuant to the directions made by the Registrar of Civil Appeals on 27 December 2019, the Notice of Motion shall be determined on paper only without an oral hearing, unless the court otherwise directs.  We agree it is appropriate to determine this application on paper.

4.In the Notice of Motion, the applicant stated as follows:

“1. Failure to consider my fear, for which I had made my Non-refoulement claim, that I would face genuine risk upon refoulement to my Country of origin,

2. Failure to proper observation on assessment of my country of origin information condition.

3. Failure to consider the Torture Claims Appeal Board (the TCAB) and the Directors did [their] inquiry properly in my Non-refoulement claim.”(sic)

5.In the written submissions the applicant repeated her skeleton submissions filed on 27 September 2019 in support of her appeal to this court. The grounds and arguments of the applicant had already been dealt with by this court in paragraphs 14 to 16 of our judgment. 

6.Section 22(1)(b) of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal Ordinance (Cap. 484) provides that leave to appeal to the Court of Final Appeal shall be granted at the discretion of the Court of Appeal or the Court of Final Appeal if the question in the appeal involves great general or public importance or otherwise ought to be determined by the Court of Final Appeal.

7.No question of great general or public importance has been identified in the grounds in the Notice of Motion.

8.Nor do we see any basis for granting leave on the “or otherwise” limb under section 22(1)(b).

9.In the circumstances, we cannot find any basis for granting leave to appeal to the Court of Final Appeal.

10.By virtue of the above, the Notice of Motion dated 23 December 2019 is dismissed.

The appellant, unrepresented, appeared in person.