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High Court, in circumstances where there is disagreement as to whether documents relating to an ongoing statutory investigation (the inspectorate process) into the affairs of the defendant attract public interest privilege, makes an order for discovery and holds that: (a) documentation relating to the inspectorate process met the threshold of relevance and necessity; (b) the defendants may assert public interest privilege over certain documents in the affidavit of discovery.
High Court - discovery - dispute between parties as to whether documents relating to ongoing statutory investigation should be discovered - legal principles - defendants resisted making discovery and asserted public interest privilege - submitted that the making of an order for discovery would not be in the public interest and would run the risk of undermining future inquiries or investigations - premature for the court to rule upon the claim of public interest privilege - defendants directed to file an affidavit of discovery - possible that the act of describing a particular document may defeat a subsequent claim of privilege - relevant party directed to preserve the disputed documents and to provide a list setting out a description of those documents directly to the court - list not to be shared with the other parties unless the court so directed.
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