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TMI Blog1940 (10) TMI 11X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ould in our opinion be intolerable and most prejudicial to the public interest if cases once decided by the Court could be re-opened and re-heard: There is a salutary maxim which ought to be observed by all Courts of last resort - interest reipublicae ut sit finis litium. Its strict observance may occasionally entail hardship upon individual litigants, but the mischief arising from that source must be small in comparison with the great mischief which would necessarily result from doubt being thrown upon the finality of the decisions of such a tribunal as this: Venkata Narasimha Appa Row v. Court of Wards (1886) 11 A C 660 at p.664. 2. This Court is not, it is true, a Court of last resort in the sense in which the Judicial Committee or ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ommittee said: It is unquestionably the strict rule, and ought to be distinctly understood as such, that no cause in this Court can be re-heard, and that an order once made, that is a report submitted to His Majesty and adopted, by being made an order in Council, is final and cannot be altered. The same is the case of the judgments of the House of Lords, that is, of the Court of Parliament, or of the King in Parliament as it is sometimes expressed, the only other supreme tribunal in this country. Whatever therefore has been really determined in these Courts must stand, there being no power of rehearing for the purpose of changing the judgment pronounced ; nevertheless, if by misprision in embodying the judgments, errors have been introdu ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e respondent; had petitioned for a re-hearing on the ground that the appeal had been heard ex parte because of his want of means to brief counsel and his own inability to argue the case, and also because the judgment of the Judicial Committee in the appeal was at variance with former decisions of the Committee; but the Lord Chancellor (Lord Hatherley), delivering the judgment of the Committee, said: Having carefully weighed the arguments, and considering the great public mischief which would arise on any doubt being thrown on the finality of the decisions of the Judicial Committee, their Lordships are of opinion that expediency requires that the prayer of the petitions should not be acceded to, and that they should be refused with costs. ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... in the petition of appeal. We saw no reason in these circumstances for giving leave to amend the petition, and the appeal was accordingly dismissed with costs. The application for review which was subsequently filed alleged that the appellant was prejudiced on account of the laches of the respondents in appearing and filing a statement of their case on the day of the hearing of the appeal. At the hearing of the application however counsel relied mainly upon another ground viz., that the judgment of the High Court on the application for a certificate Under Section 205, Constitution Act, was not produced before this Court when the appeal was heard. We have now seen the judgment of the High Court, the existence and indeed the terms of which m ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Court or this Court; and he also alleged that his counsel was not properly instructed and so could not present his case fully at the hearing before us. If counsel had felt that he could not do justice to his client's case without a further study of his instructions, he would doubtless have asked for the indulgence of the Court; but no such request was made, and it is a matter for counsel's discretion how a case is presented to the tribunal and which points are pressed or abandoned. This applicant also is asking us to re-hear the whole appeal upon the merits. 8. The power which we are invited to exercise in these two cases is one to be exercised with extreme caution and only in very exceptional cases; and applications for its exe ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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