State (Gorman and Others) v Governor of Portlaoise Prison

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1964
• Date: 01 January 1964
• Court: Supreme Court

(S.C.)

State (Gorman and Others)

and

Governor of Portlaoise Prison

Committal to named prisons - Transfer to another prison by ministerial order - Whether prison to which applicants transferred a "convict prison" - Validity of order- Habeas corpus - Criminal Justice (Administration) Act, 1914, ss. 17 (1), (3), 43 - Adaptation of Enactments Act, 1922, s. 11.

The applicants, having been sentenced to terms of imprisonment and committed to Mountjoy and Limerick Prisons respectively, to serve that sentence, were transferred to Portlaoise Prison by order of the Minister for Justice, in purported exercise of the powers conferred upon him by s. 17 (3) of the Criminal Justice (Administration) Act, 1914. On appeal to the Supreme Court against the refusal of the President of the High Court to grant conditional orders of habeas corpus in the first two cases and the discharge of a conditional order of habeas corpus in the third case it was held that as Portlaoise Prison had not been appropriated wholly to convict prisoners under s. 17 (1)...