Former legislator Gary Cheng Kai-nam yesterday failed in his third attempt to reschedule his fraud trial before a bilingual judge as a court ruled he had no constitutional right to choose the category of judge who would hear his case.
Mr Justice Michael Hartmann of the Court of First Instance gave his ruling shortly before Cheng's case was due to start in the District Court.
He said in the written judgment that Hong Kong's domestic legislation only guaranteed a person's constitutional right to use either English or Chinese - the two official languages in the SAR - in trial, but not to choose a judge who spoke the language that an applicant preferred.
'In my judgment, the constitutional right of a person to use the Chinese language in a court of law in Hong Kong means no more than the right of that person to employ that language, that is to utilise it, for the purpose of forwarding or protecting his interests,' he said.
'That right to employ or utilise the language does not imply a reciprocal obligation on the part of the court to speak and read that language.'
He noted the Basic Law allowed the recruitment of judges from other common law jurisdictions and did not suggest they should speak a Chinese tongue.