Saru Gaman Singh v. Torture Claims Appeal Board

CACV 86/2022

[2022] HKCA 1815

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF APPEAL

CIVIL APPEAL NO 86 OF 2022

(ON APPEAL FROM HCAL NO 2677 OF 2018)

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BETWEEN

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Before: Hon Chow JA and Ng J in Court

Date of Written Submissions: 14 November 2022

Date of Judgment: 9 December 2022

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J U D G M E N T

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Hon Ng J (giving the Judgment of the Court):

1.On 20 September 2022, this Court gave its judgment (“the CA Judgment”) dismissing the Applicant’s appeal against the order made by Deputy High Court Judge Bruno Chan on 15 February 2022 refusing to grant leave to the Applicant to apply for judicial review of the decisions of the Torture Claims Appeal Board (“the Board”) dated 4 August 2015 and 15 November 2018.

2.The Applicant now applies by Notice of Motion dated 31 October 2022 for leave to appeal the CA Judgment to the Court of Final Appeal. In the Notice of Motion, the following grounds are stated:

“1. There is some error in law in my decision. The decision maker just relied on COL information any my previous facts, which were favor on rejecting my claim.

2. The learned Judges were wrong as a matter of law for not having applied the principle of irrationality to the decision made by the Director of Immigration refusing my application for Judicial Review.

3. Actual life occur different situation then mentioned COL information. Officer and courts prefers to ignore the overwhelming of the evidence of the violence towards minorities searching for unrealistic silver lining.

4. The Judge did not apply the law properly.”

3.The Applicant’s written submissions, apart from citing some provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance, Basic Law and the United nations Convention against Torture and authorities without explaining their relevance to this application, add nothing of substance to the leave application and, apart from a bare assertion that the legal issues raised are complex, fail to identify any proposed ground of appeal against the CA Judgment in light of s 22(1)(b) of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal Ordinance, Cap 484.

4.Under s 22(1)(b) of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal Ordinance, Cap 484, an appeal shall lie to the Court of Final Appeal at the discretion of, inter alia, the Court of Appeal in any civil cause or matter if, in the opinion of the Court of Appeal, the question involved in the appeal is one which, by reason of its great general or public importance, or otherwise, ought to be submitted to the Court of Final Appeal for decision.

5.No question of great general or public importance involved in the proposed appeal is identified in the Notice of Motion. We are unable to see any such question being involved in the proposed appeal. We are satisfied that the intended appeal has no merits and no reasonable prospect of success. There is also no basis to grant leave to appeal on the “otherwise” limb in s 22(1)(b) of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal Ordinance.

6.Accordingly, the application for leave to appeal is refused and the Notice of Motion is dismissed.

The Applicant, acting in person.