Jamal v Commissioner of Police (NSW)

Jamal v Commissioner of Police (NSW) concerned an application for leave to appeal before the Court of Appeal of New South Wales, presided over by Basten and Payne JJA. The applicant sought an adjournment of the hearing due to unfitness to attend court. The core of the dispute revolved around whether the court could proceed to deal with the application for leave to appeal on the papers, notwithstanding the applicant's lack of consent to this course of action.

The legal issues before the Court of Appeal were whether it possessed the power to dispense with the requirement for the applicant's consent to have the leave application heard on the papers, and if so, whether an adjournment should be granted. This involved an interpretation of rule 51.15 of the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 (NSW) and section 14 of the Civil Procedure Act 2005 (NSW).

The Court determined that it was empowered by section 14 of the Civil Procedure Act 2005 (NSW) to dispense with the requirement for the parties' consent under rule 51.15 of the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 (NSW) when dealing with an application for leave to appeal on the papers. Given the applicant's demonstrated unfitness to attend court, the Court granted the request for an adjournment of the hearing fixed for 8 December 2016.

The Court ordered that the Registrar fix a new date for the hearing of the application for leave to appeal in February 2017. It was further ordered that the respondent's costs of the day be the Commissioner's costs in the leave application.