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The following is issued on behalf of the Judiciary :

In response to press enquiries whether the Judiciary would consider speeding up the handling of cases involving application for judicial review for right of abode, a spokesman for the Judiciary said as follows:

"The Judiciary always strives to maintain an independent, competent and efficient judicial system which upholds the rule of law and disposes of cases within a reasonable time.

Since January this year, 1 646 applications have been filed for judicial review in respect of claims for right of abode, involving 10 116 applicants.

As at to date, the court has already disposed of 750 applications involving 7 775 applicants.

Of the remainder, 91 and 25 applications have been listed for hearing for directions and leave to apply for judicial review respectively for August and September. We understand that preparatory works for Directions Hearing for 779 applications are under way. It is expected that they will be dealt with in a group within weeks after the necessary preparatory works have been completed. One application involving 1 446 claimants is now awaiting clarifications from their legal representatives.

While these applications may be expedited by the court's effective case management, their progress depends largely on how ready the parties are in proceeding with these cases.

To dispose of cases efficiently and effectively, it has always been the policy of the Judiciary to adopt a flexible approach in arranging more resources to handle a specific type of cases if the need arises. Such arrangements, however, cannot be made at the expenses of the quality of the judicial process or delay for other types of cases."

End/Friday, August 4, 2000

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