Court of Appeal
Civil Appeal No. 4 of 1992
15th December, 1992
S. PONNAMBALAM

Mr. Fred Lumor for the Appellant.
Mr. Eamon Courtenay for the Respondent.

Civil practice and procedure - Application to file Notice of Appeal out of time - Rule 3(3) of the Court of Appeal Rules - Judge may extend time within which an appeal may be brought provided the application is made within one month of the expiration of time so prescribed - Application of section 43 of the Court of Appeal Act - Section only applies to criminal appeals.

J U D G M E N T

Pursuant to section 17(3) of the Court of Appeal Act, the Defendant/Appellant, as Applicant took out summons for an order for an extension of time to file a Notice of Appeal against an order made by me in Chambers on 12th March, 1992. Since the learned counsel for the Plaintiff/Respondent indicated that he would be taking an in limine objection on the jurisdictional ground, both counsel were requested to make their submissions in writing, which they have done.

The objection of the counsel for the Plaintiff/Respondent is based on two grounds and in my view he is entitled to succeed on both.

Firstly, according to the Court of Appeal Rule 3(3), a judge of the Court may extend the time prescribed in paragraph (1) within which an appeal may be brought, provided an application is made within one month of the expiration of the time so prescribed. The present application now made is clearly months outside the time period provided by this Rule. Therefore I have no power to grant the application and it must therefore fail.

Secondly, the Defendant/Appellant, in his submission specifically states that he is making his application under section 43 of the Court of Appeal Act. And he goes on to argue at length that this section applies. But I find myself in agreement with the contention of the counsel for the Plaintiff/Respondent that section 43 applies only to criminal appeals, as is the whole of Part IV of the Act. This is made clear by the opening provisions of section 14(l) of Part III of the Act.

The Application of the Defendant/Appellant therefore fails and is accordingly dismissed.

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