An Stat (MacFhearraigh) v Neilan

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1998
• Court: Supreme Court

State (MacFhearraigh)

and

Neilan

(H.C., S.C.)

- District Court - Summons - District Court summons in the English language only served on person residing in Gaeltacht - Whether prosecuting authority obliged to serve a summons in the Irish language - Judicial review - Ex parte application - Certiorari -Constitution of Ireland, Art. 8 - District Court Rules, 1948 (No. 431 of 1947) - Rules of the Superior Courts, O. 106, r. 2 (S.I. No. 72 of 1962) - Rules of the Circuit Court, 1950, O. 1, r. 5 (S.I. No. 179).

The prosecutor resided at Gort an Choirce, a Gaeltacht district in County Donegal. A summons in the English language was served on him requiring him to appear at the District court, Falcarragh, on the 26 October, 1983, to answer a complaint made against him that he had a television apparatus in his possession on the 20 April, 1983, such possession not being authorised by a licence for the time being in force. The prosecutor wrote to the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs and other State authorities requiring that a summons in the Irish language be served on him. The hearing of the 26 October was postponed and the prosecutor was so informed. On the 22 October, 1983, a fresh summons was served on the prosecutor requiring his presence at the District Court in Falcarragh on the 25 January, 1984, to answer the complaint aforesaid. The summons was in the English language on this occasion also. The prosecutor wrote again to the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs asking him to arrange for the issue of a summons in the Irish language in place of the one in English. That request was not acceded to and the prosecutor did not attend at the District Court on the appointed day. The prosecution proceeded and the prosecutor was fined £53 and given seven days to pay. The prosecutor made an ex parte application before Mr. Justice O'Hanlon in the High Court on the 28 May, 1984, seeking a conditional order of certiorari quashing the order of the District Court on the basis that it was not lawful according to law or the Constitution to serve a summons in the English language only on a person residing in a Gaeltacht district and whose home language was the Irish language. Judgment was reserved. Held by O'Hanlon J., in refusing to grant a conditional order of certiorari, that since there was no provision in the District Court Rules regarding the use of the Irish language in court documents or during proceedings before the District...