- Flynote
- Administrative Review
- Case summary
- The Applicants’ summons was dismissed. The 1st Respondent was given leave to file a further affidavit to explain the positions taken in his email and the letter from the Minister. The court can permit cross examination of witnesses in judicial review proceedings, but it will only do so in exceptional cases. George v Secretary of State for the Environment (CA) (1979) 77 L.G.R. 689 considered. [9] to [10] The court questioned whether the instant matter was one of those “most exceptional cases”, in which cross examination would be justified. The court said in most cases where it permits cross examination of persons who have given evidence on affidavit, it does so in order to resolve disputes of fact between the parties. An unusual aspect of this case was that the Applicants were not relying on any factual dispute between their evidence and the evidence on behalf of the Respondents. They were relying on discrepancies between the evidence in the 1st Respondent’s affidavit on the one hand, and statements in his email and the Minister’s letter on the other. [11] Counsel for the Applicants submitted that the court needed to resolve this dispute in order to determine whether the appeals are still extant. However, the Applicants’ case (as per the motion for judicial review) is based on the premise that the appeals are still extant, and the 1st Respondent’s affidavit confirmed that they are. The 1st Respondent is bound by the position taken in his affidavit, and the Applicants need not fear that at the trial he may take a different position. There was no need to resolve this “dispute” by cross examining the 1st Respondent. It certainly was not an exceptional case that would justify such an order. [12] to [13]
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