Bhatt v Principal Immigration Officer (Civil Appeal No. 10 of 1954)

Observed later treatment

No later-treatment classification is recorded for this judgment.

Citator coverage is limited to judgments in the Wakilii corpus and source-matched treatment records. Absence of a signal is not an assertion that the case remains good law.

Holding

The word 'appeal' is not included in the words 'action, prosecution or proceeding' in section 2(a) of the Public Officers' Protection Ordinance Cap. 63. The six-month limitation period in that Ordinance does not apply to bar an appeal filed under section 5(4) of the Immigration Control Ordinance. The Resident Magistrate erred in dismissing the appeal as time-barred under the Public Officers' Protection Ordinance. The matter was remitted to determine whether the appeal was time-barred under Article 14 of the Indian Limitation Act 1877.

Outcome

Matter remitted to Resident Magistrate for determination of limitation issue and, if not time-barred, hearing on merits

Facts

The appellant was declared a prohibited immigrant by the Principal Immigration Officer on 26th April 1949 under section 5(1)(ii) of the Immigration (Control) Ordinance and required to leave the Colony within 14 days. The appellant returned to India. On 9th September 1953, more than four years later, the appellant filed an appeal to the Resident Magistrate, Nairobi. The Resident Magistrate dismissed the appeal without deciding it on its merits, holding that it was time-barred by the six-month limitation period in section 2(a) of the Public Officers' Protection Ordinance Cap. 63. The appellant then filed a second appeal to the Supreme Court (East African Court of Appeal) challenging the magistrate's ruling on limitation.

Issues

1. Whether the word 'appeal' is included in the words 'action, prosecution or proceeding' in section 2(a) of the Public Officers' Protection Ordinance Cap. 63.
2. Whether an appeal filed more than six months after a declaration by the Principal Immigration Officer is time-barred by the Public Officers' Protection Ordinance.
3. Whether Article 14 of the Second Schedule to the Indian Limitation Act 1877 applies to the appeal.

Orders

• Appeal allowed.
• Case remitted to the Resident Magistrate with a direction to make a finding as to whether the appeal filed against the order of the Principal Immigration Officer dated 26th April 1949 was barred by limitation.
• If the Resident Magistrate finds the appeal time-barred, the appeal will stand dismissed.
• If the Resident Magistrate finds the appeal not time-barred, he is directed to hear the appeal on the merits.
• Question of costs reserved.

Rules and key headnotes

Legislation cited (8)

• Public Officers' Protection Ordinance Cap. 63 s.2(a)
• Immigration (Control) Ordinance Cap. 51 s.5(1)(ii)
• Immigration (Control) Ordinance Cap. 51 s.5(4)
• Limitation Ordinance Cap. 11
• Indian Limitation Act 1877 s.3
• Indian Limitation Act 1877 Schedule II Article 14
• Limitation Ordinance s.40
• Civil Procedure Code s.3

The original judgment as reported. Read the original PDF before relying on any passage.