REPUBLIC v. MINISTER FOR THE INTERIOR; EX PARTE BOMBELLI

JUDGMENT OF CECILIA KORANTENG ADDOW J.

In these proceedings, Mr Akainyah moves on behalf of the applicant, an Italian national, for a writ of certiorari to issue and bring into this court the Executive Instrument No 27 dated 14 July 1980 to be quashed. In the same motion, the applicant is asking for a declaration that the resident permit issued to him and his family has four more months to run.

It is firmly established that a claim for declaration and an application for the prerogative writ of certiorari cannot be married in one action. It seems counsel might have conceeded this because he made no reference to the declaratory part of the reliefs in his argument. I therefore consider that the claim for declaration has been quietly jettisoned. I will only therefore consider the application for certiorari.

The grounds upon which this application is made are that, the respondent did not act fairly, in good faith, candidly or without prejudice and bias, and also that he did not act in accordance with the due process of law and natural justice in dealing with the matter of the [p.207] applicant. But the main ground for the application is that the respondent did not follow the correct procedure in issuing the executive instrument under which the applicant and his family were deported. The original docket in this case got missing, and up to the time of writing my ruling it had not been traced. The motion for leave to issue the writ was granted by my brother Agyepong J during the long vacation, ie August-September 1980. The pursuant notice was fixed before me on 27 October 1980. On that date only a temporary docket was put before me; the original docket containing the original application papers and the order of the court granting the motion ex parte had not been put before me.

The facts of the case are these: The applicant is an Italian national. He entered Ghana in 1975 and was given a resident permit which has been renewed at appropriate times. The applicant was in Ghana with his wife and a thirteen-year-old son. They all had separate permits. The applicant by his affidavit says that he is a part-owner to the extent of 49 per cent shares of Aurum Industries Ltd, a company operating in the country, and that he has brought equipments to the value of ¢800,000 into the country, and that all the equipments were purchased in foreign currency. He deposed that he invested this amount in the country believing that if he remained law-abiding he would be permitted to