APPEAL COURT DECISION

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 110, 10 May 1923, Page 7

APPEAL COURT DECISION

VERDICT AGAINST THE HOME SECRETARY

CASE TO GO STILL FURTHER.

I (EXITED PRESS ASSOCIATION COPTRIGHf.) {AUSTRALIAN - NEW ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION.) (Received 10th May, noon.) LONDON, 9th May. Art O'Brien's appeal for a writ of habeas corpus has been granted. The Appeal Court held that the internment order was bad. In delivering judgment, Mr. Justice Bankes expressed the opinion that since the establishment of the Irish Free State the Home Secretary could not properly make an order for the internment of a person in the Free State. The order deprived the Executive of England of the right to direct the release of an 'interned person, while an interned person was derived of the particular form of control provided by the regulations. No order could be made for internment in the Free State which would comply with the regulations. It would seem from the Home Secretary's answers in Parliament that he was under the impression that he had not lost control of the internees, but, according to O'Brien's affidavit, he was now under the control of an official of the Free State. Therefore, the question could not be properly disposed of unless the rule nisi was made absolute. This would give the Home Secretary the opportunity of making the position clear. The I Judge added: "It would not be out of place to observe that the practice of legislating by Order-in-Council is one which has led to difficulties and dangers, of which the present case'is an illustration." Mr. Justice Scrutton and Mr, Justice Atkin. concurred. The Attorney-General eaid the decision, which was a reversal of that givenMn the Divisional Court, raised questicjis of grave import. It was therefore the intention of those instructing him to carry the appeal to the House of Lord*. Mr. Justice Bankes said the Court had anticipated that that would be done. An application would be made to the Lords to expedite the hearing. A recent message stated that a curious position had arisen in connection with the recent Irish deportations from Britain. It was said that should the Court's decision in the O'Brien case be against the Home Secretary, the Government would have no alternative except to ask Parliament to pass an Act to indemnify and absolve the Home Secretary from the penalties which might attach to his act in connection with the recent deportations.