Re Gurung Purnima

CACV 295/2019

[2020] HKCA 387

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF APPEAL

CIVIL APPEAL NO 295 OF 2019

(ON APPEAL FROM HCAL 1622/2018)

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Before: Hon Lam VP, Cheung and Barma JJA in Court

Date of Written Submissions:  18 December 2019

Date of Judgment:  28 May 2020

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JUDGMENT

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Hon Lam VP (giving the Judgment of the Court):

1.By a judgment dated 5 November 2019 ([2019] HKCA 1178), this Court (Lam VP, Cheung and Barma JJA) dismissed the applicant’s summons issued under CAMP 195/2019 for leave to appeal out of time, as well as her appeal under CACV 295/2019 against the decision of Deputy High Court Judge K W Lung (“the Judge”) refusing leave to apply for judicial review.

2.By a notice of motion dated 2 December 2019, the applicant applied for leave to appeal against the judgment to the Court of Final Appeal.  In the notice, she reiterated the ground that the lack of language assistance rendered the process unfair.

3.She repeated her ground of appeal in her written submissions lodged on 18 December 2019.

4.In the judgment, this Court explained that the appeal was dismissed because it was incompetent in the absence of leave to appeal out of time.  Furthermore, this Court refused to grant such leave because there was no prospect of success in the intended appeal.  Particularly, at [22] – [24] of the judgment, this Court explained why there was no reasonably arguable basis to challenge either the Torture Claims Appeal Board’s or the Judge’s decision based on the lack of language assistance.  In this application, the applicant failed to demonstrate why this Court was wrong in this respect.

5.In any event, the matters raised by the applicant in the notice of motion and the written submissions do not involve any question of great general or public importance.  Nor do we see any reason to grant leave on the “or otherwise” limb.  The statutory criterion for granting leave to appeal to the Court of Final Appeal is therefore not met: section 22(1)(b) of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal Ordinance (Cap 484).

6.Accordingly, we dismiss the application for leave to appeal to the Court of Final Appeal.

The applicant acting in person