Nakkuda Ali v M.F. de S. Jayaratne

Date

29 June 1950

Legislation

Courts Ordinance s.42
Defence (Control of Textiles) Regulations

Keywords

meaning of "reasonable grounds"; judicial review

Counsel

Sir David Maxwell Fyfe KC, J.G. Le Quesne, Stephen Chapman

Solicitors

Darley, Cumberland & Co; Burchells.

Judge

Lords Porter, Oaksey, and Radcliffe, Sir John Beaumont and Sir Lionel Leach.

Court

Judicial Committee of the Privy Council

Reported

[1951] AC 66.

Summary

The respondent was the Controller of Textiles in Ceylon who cancelled the appellant’s licence in accordance with Regulation 62 of the Defence (Control of Textiles) Regulations 1945. Regulation 62 permitted a cancellation to be made "where the Controller has reasonable grounds to believe that any dealer is unfit to be allowed to continue as a dealer."

Decision

The Privy Council held that:

• decisions of the Controller of Textiles in Ceylon were subject to judicial review; and
• the words of the section requiring ‘reasonable grounds’ were to be construed as imposing a condition that there must in fact exist such reasonable grounds, known to the Controller, before he can validly exercise the power of cancellation