Ex-police deluge courts with review bids
A judge has frowned on the flood of applications for a judicial review from former police officers who were disciplined for misconduct.
Mr Justice Andrew Cheung Kui-nung said in a written ruling that a floodgate could be opened after the Court of Final Appeal ruled a year ago that a ban on legal representation for officers at disciplinary proceedings was unconstitutional.
Cheung and Madam Justice Carlye Chu Fun-ling dismissed applications by seven former officers, saying many were seriously out of time and that in some cases the officers were already past retirement age.
'As regards prejudice and detriment to good administration, the concern of opening a floodgate is a real one,' Cheung said in a Court of First Instance ruling, noting that dozens of applications for a review were already in the works.
'The strain on the limited resources of the police, the Legal Aid Department and the judiciary by the belated applications is self-evident.'
The ruling by the top court in March last year led to the reinstatement of Constable Lam Siu-po, who had been forced to retire in 2002 after a police internal hearing convicted him of misconduct.
Cheung said that since the ruling, 161 ex-police officers had applied for legal aid to seek a judicial review, and 58 applications had been accepted.
In the same period, 31 applications based on Lam's case had been served on the police or the Department of Justice, the judge said.
In the cases dealt with by Cheung and Chu, the officers had been found guilty of misconduct, such as failing to be prudent in their financial affairs or contravening police orders, and compulsorily retired in hearings between 1995 and 2007.
Each of the seven officers wanted to apply for a judicial review of his disciplinary conviction on the basis of the Lam ruling but needed the court's permission because the application was being made well beyond the usual period of three months after the result of a hearing.
Yesterday, Cheung and Chu dismissed all the applications, saying in several cases that they were seriously out of time. Cheung said some of the police officers who had testified had retired and that some witnesses were no longer traceable.
Wong Ching, the new chairman of the Junior Police Officers' Association, said the association had noticed that some ex-police officers had applied for a judicial review although they had reached retirement age.
'As every case is a unique one and might involve compensation, it is understandable that ex-policemen applied to review their cases through legal proceedings,' Wong said. Some ex-officers might want to clear their names even though they would not be able to rejoin the force, he said.
A Legal Aid Department spokeswoman declined to comment on the judge's remarks.
