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(a)
The present legislation
is the provision presently dealing with vexatious litigants. It
bristles with safeguards against the danger of unjustifiably depriving someone of the
right to approach the seat of justice. Thus :-
(a)
the application can only be made by the Secretary for Justice;
(b)
the court must give the person involved an opportunity of being heard; and,
(c)
the court must be satisfied that such person has instituted a series of actions or
other proceedings (and not just applications within a single action) such that he
can be said to have "habitually and persistently and without any reasonable
ground instituted vexatious legal proceedings;"
before the court can make an order that no legal proceedings shall be instituted by him
without the court's leave, which leave is not to be given unless the proceedings are not
an abuse of its process and there is prima facie ground for the proceedings.
Notes
Which provides: (1) If, on an application made by the Secretary for Justice under this section, the
Court of First Instance is satisfied that any person has habitually and persistently and without any
reasonable ground instituted vexatious legal proceedings, whether in the Court of First Instance or in
any inferior court, and whether against the same person or against different persons, the Court of
First Instance may, after hearing that person or giving him an opportunity of being heard, order that
no legal proceedings shall, without the leave of the Court of First Instance be instituted by him in any
court and that any proceedings instituted by him in any court before the making of the order shall not
be continued by him without such leave and such leave shall not be given unless the Court of First
Instance is satisfied that the proceedings are not an abuse of the process of the Court and that there is
prima facie ground for the proceedings. (2) A copy of any order made under subsection (1) shall be
published in the Gazette.
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