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High Court refuses to make order quashing applicant's conviction for membership of an unlawful organisation or to make any declarations as to the incompatibility of the relevant statutory provisions with the Constitution and the ECHR, on the grounds that: (a) there had not been a change in circumstances that would allow the court to depart from a previous decision of the Supreme Court in relation to the constitutional validity of the impugned section; (b) while there was considerable force in the arguments put forward by the applicant, if the matter was to be revisited in the light of subsequent changes, it was the relevant appeal court that should do so, and whether that could be the Court of Appeal or only the Supreme Court was not a matter that the court had to decide; and (c) if the court was incorrect in this view then an appeal court would set out the circumstances in which the High Court was free to depart from an earlier decision of the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of a particular statutory provision.
Application for judicial review - applicant seeking declarations that s. 30(3) of the Offences Against the State Act 1939 was invalid having regard to the provisions of the Constitution and was incompatible with the obligations of the State pursuant to the European Convention on Human Rights - right to a fair trial, right to silence and right to liberty - applicant also seeking order of certiorari quashing his conviction for membership of an unlawful organisation contrary to s. 21 of the Act - whether fact that member in charge of garda station has no input into the authorisation of a detainee's initial period of 24 hours’ detention is a lack of oversight that breaches the Constitution and is incompatible with ECHR - whether extension of the period of detention upon the authorisation of a chief superintendent who may not be independent of the investigation breaches the Constitution and is incompatible with ECHR - whether lack of statutory provision for oversight or assessment of the initial detention period by any person independent of the investigation breaches the Constitution and is incompatible with ECHR - whether the High Court could revisit the question of constitutional validity where the Supreme Court had already found that the provision in question did not breach the Constitution.
Note: This is intended to be a fair and accurate report of a decision made public by a court of law. Any errors should be notified to the editor and will be dealt with accordingly.
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