Hong Kong's political backdrop won't affect court's role in Occupy cases, says High Court judge
Assurance from the court as bus firm granted injunction to clear roads
A High Court judge has given an assurance that the political background against which Occupy Central protests are set will not affect the judiciary's role and duties in assessing the legal rights of parties taking their cases to court.
Mr Justice Thomas Au Hing-cheung spoke as he granted a bus operator an interim injunction to clear the obstruction of two main roads in Admiralty and Central.
The applicant, Kwoon Chung Bus Holdings subsidiary All China Express, had suffered substantial losses because its vehicles could not pass through the occupied Connaught Road Central, Harcourt Road and Cotton Tree Drive, Au said.
"The defendants simply have no legal right whatsoever to occupy and block in the way the protesters do the public roads in question," he wrote in his judgment, passed down yesterday.
"The balance of convenience lies overwhelmingly in favour of granting the injunction."
Earlier, All China Express told the court that ticket sales for its southbound service had fallen more than HK$691,800, or 17 per cent, between September 29 and October 26. Occupy Central began on September 28.
Au said the court would determine cases only by applying the law, and would not take into account political considerations. The fact that there were political undertones in the disputes "does not and should not affect the court's role and duty in adjudicating those legal rights".