TMI Blog1979 (7) TMI 250X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t is, and has been at least since 1966, his intention of making his permanent home in The Bahamas; and, what is most relevant to the Constitutional right that he claims to be registered as a citizen of The Bahamas, there was issued to him on 2 February 1966 by the Immigration Board a certificate that he belonged to the Bahama Islands for the purposes of the Immigration Act, 1963. The relevant sections of the Immigration Act, 1963, were replaced by corresponding sections in the Immigration Act, 1967, and persons to whom such certificates of belonging to the Bahama Islands had been issued under either of those two Acts have since 1969 been referred to as possessing Bahamian Status The current Constitution of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas is contained in the Schedule to the Bahamas Independence Order 1973, which came into operation on 10 July 1973. By Article 2 of the Constitution it is the supreme law of The Bahamas and, subject to its provisions, if any other law is inconsistent with this Constitution, this Constitution shall prevail and the other law shall. to the extent of the inconsistency, be void . Chapter Il of the Constitution deals with citizenship of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... a person who possessed Bahamian Status on 9 July 1973 to be registered as a citizen. In fact such legislation had already been enacted by the Legislature of the Bahama Islands in anticipation of the coming into force of the new Constitution. This was done under powers conferred upon that Legislature by section 4(2) of The Bahamas Independence Order 1973. It is to be found in The Bahamas Nationality Act, 1973, of which the long title is : An Act to provide for the Acquisition, Certification, Renunciation and Deprivation of citizenship of The Bahamas and for purposes incidental thereto or connected therewith . The relevant sections of this Act which deal with applications for registration as a citizen under Article 5(2), (3) and (4) of the Constitution are as follows : - 7. Any person claiming to be entitled to be registered as a citizen of The Bahamas under the provisions of Article 5, 7, 9 or 10 of the Constitution may make application to the Minister in the prescribed manner and, in any such case if it appears to the Minister that the applicant is entitled to such registration and that all relevant provisions of the Constitution have been complied with, he shall cause t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... try for an interview accompanied by his wife. He did so on 7 November 1974 and was then interviewed by Mr. Walkine who asked bim a number of questions about his whereabouts and occupation from 1947 onwards. It is, however, common ground that at no time was it suggested to him that he had done anything that was capable of bringng bim within any of the categories of undesirable persons set out in paragraphs (a) to (e) of the proviso to section 7 of The Bahamas Nationality Act, 1973, or anything else that might make it not conducive to the public good that he should become a citizen of The Bahamas. Nevertheless on 16 June 1975. he received a letter from the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry, informing him laconically that his application had not been approved. No reasons for the refusal of registration were given; none has been given since. The Minister's decision to refuse registration had in fact been made on 28 May 1975. On 7 April 1976 Mr. Ryan began these proceedings by Originating Summons against the Attorney-General for a declaration : that upon the true construction of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas the Plaintiff is entitled to be regist ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ring in accordance with the principles of natural justice before his application to be registered as a citizen was rejected by the Minister; and that a failure to accord him this rendered the Minister's decision a nullity. This means that he was at least entitled to be informed of the nature of the case against acceptance of his application and to be given a reasonable opportunity of answering it. It does not mean that there must necessarily be an oral hearing conducted in accordance with procedures appropriate to trials in a court of law. What is an appropriate and fair procedure is very much a matter for the Minister to determine in his discretion having regard to the kind of things which he is required to take into consideration-in the instant case, the various matters referred to in the proviso to section 7 of The Bahamas Nationality Act, 1973. Their Lordships, however, need not go further into this, on which ample authority is cited in the judgments of the courts below; since it is now conceded that neither at his interview with Mr. Walkine nor on any other occasion was Mr. Ryan given any indication of the grounds upon which the Minister contemplated rejecting his applicat ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t, 1973, he had not been willing to disclose and which, in consequence, Mr. Ryan had not been able to deal with in his affdavits that were before the court. The Chief Justice would have ordered the matter to be remitted to the Minister for him to consider Mr. Ryan's application according to law. There was thus agreement between the two judges of the Supreme Court that the Minister's purported rejection of Mr. Ryan's application for registration as a citizen was a nullity, but disagreement as to the appropriate order to be made. Under Rule 4 of the Supreme Court (Special Jurisdiction) Rules, 1976. this had the consequence, somewhat bizarre in all the circumstances, that the plaintiff's summons was dismissed and the Minister's rejection of his application stood. So Mr. Ryan found himself in the role of appellant in the Court of Appeal. As has already been indicated parenthetically, all three members of the Court of Appeal (Hogan P., Duffus and Blair-Kerr JJ.A.) agreed with Knowles C.J. and Graham J. upon the answer to Question (l) : the Minister's purported decision was a nullity. On the matter that had divided the two judges in the Supreme Court they ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... articular circumstances falling within those general terms. The circumstances so far as they involve matters of fact must be described in the legislation (whether it be primary or subordinate) in such terms that whether they exist or not can be determined objectively, so that a would-be applicant upon reading the legislation can know whether he falls within a category of persons whose applications for registration may lawfully be refused notwithstanding that they satisfy the requirements of Article 5(2) and (3), Where in the case of a particular applicant circumstances described in the legislation as constituting an exception or qualification do exist, it is not contrary to the Constitution to confer on the Executive a discretion to allow the registration of the applicant notwithstanding that he has no legal right to demand it. Likewise it is not contrary to the Constitution to confer upon an executive authority or administrative tribunal jurisdiction to determine whether the circumstances described in the legislation exist in relation to any particular applicant, provided that in making the determination the principles of natural justice are observed. What Article 5(4) does not ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s of others, and the substitution of the superior judicial authority's own findings of fact and conclusions of law for those of the inferior tribunal, In review the function of the superior judicial authority is limited to re-examining the inferior tribunal's conclusions of law as to the legal consequences of the facts as they have been found by the inferior tribunal. It is by now well-established law that to come within the prohibition of appeal or review by an ouster clause of this type, the decision must be one which the decision-making authority, under this Act the Minister, had jurisdiction to make. If in purporting to make it he has gone outside his jurisdiction, it is ultra vires and is not a decision under the Act. The Supreme Court, in the exercise of its supervisory jurisdiction over inferior tribunals, which include executive authorities exercising quasi-judicial powers, may, in appropziate proceedings, either set it aside or declare it to be a nullity. Anisminic Ltd. v. Foreign Compensation Conunission [19691 2 A.C. 147. It has long been settled law that a decision affecting the legal rights of an individual which is arrived at by a procedure which of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... y to attempt to answer them before the decision was reached. As propositions of law, the first depended largely upon the presence at the end of the proviso to section 7 of The Bahamas Nationality Act, 1973, of the provision which their Lordships, in agreement with the Court of Appeal and Graham J., have held to be inconsistent with the Constitution and consequently void; with the result that the only valid grounds upon which the Minister could have rejected Mr. Ryan's application would have been if he were satisfied positively that one or other of the circumstances described in paragraphs (a) to (e) of the proviso did in fact exist in relation to Mr. Ryan, there being no onus upon Mr. Ryan to satisfy the Minister that they did not. Nevertheless, the Court of Appeal did not know, and neither do their Lordships, whether the Minister's refusal of the application was based on one of the grounds specified in paragraphs (a) to (e) or was made in reliance upon some other suffcient reason of public policy under that part of the proviso which has now been held to be invalid. The Court of Appeal and Graham J. were impressed by the fact that Mr. Ryan had filed in the proceed ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ounsel have adhered throughout this litigation, has refused to reveal whether there was any such material or not. No doubt when the Minister determines Mr. Ryan's application of 27 June 1974 according to law, which he has not done yet, he will be obliged, if he is contemplating refusing the application, to inform Mr. Ryan of the grounds on which he relies as justifying this course and giving to Mr. Ryan a reasonable opportunity of answering or refuting them; but The Bahamas Nationality Act, 1973, involves no conflict with any provision of the Constitution in conferring as it does, upon the Minister, sole jurisdiction to the exclusion of all courts of law to determine whether, In relation to any applicant, there exist facts which justify refusing his application for citizenship upon any of the grounds specified in paragraphs (a) to (e) of the proviso to section 7, Provided that the Minister has not misconstrued the provisions of the statute which confer the power, has observed the principles of natural justice in the procedure he has adopted in the course of reaching his decision and has not acted upon material that is devoid of probative value his findings of fact are not su ..... 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