District Court empowered to award costs in licensing appeals following statutory interpretation

The High Court quashed a District Court decision which had refused to award costs in a successful appeal against the refusal to renew a taxi licence, holding that the District Court had jurisdiction to make such awards in licensing and statutory appeals. The court found that the relevant legislation created a general power for all courts to award costs in 'civil proceedings', a phrase found to encompass statutory licensing appeals as these are not criminal in nature and involve parties contesting an outcome. The judge reasoned that there was no clear legislative exclusion for licensing cases, that public policy arguments did not override the statutory text, and that the prior practice of excluding licensing matters from costs jurisdiction was overtaken by developments in the law. The matter was remitted for the District Court to consider costs in line with these findings.