ON APPEAL FROM THE HIGH COURT
ADMINISTRATIVE COURT LIST
(Mr Justice Hodge)
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand
London, WC2
B E F O R E:
LORD JUSTICE KEENE
SIAVASH DAIE
Claimant
-v-
LONDON BOROUGH OF CAMDEN HOMELESS PERSONS' UNIT
Defendant
(Computer-Aided Transcript of the Stenograph Notes of
Smith Bernal Wordwave Limited
190 Fleet Street, London EC4A 2AG
Tel No: 020 7404 1400 Fax No: 020 7831 8838
(Official Shorthand Writers to the Court)
THE CLAIMANT appeared in person
THE DEFENDANTdid not appear and was not represented
J U D G M E N T
1. LORD JUSTICE KEENE: I think it is going to be a lot easier if Camden Council were here so that they can put their side of the case. What I propose to do is to adjourn your application for permission to appeal for seven days. That is to say it will come on a week today on Thursday 31st March.
2. THE CLAIMANT: My Lord, can I say something? My advisers at the Royal Courts of Justice advise me it will be back on the 30th.
3. LORD JUSTICE KEENE: I am going to adjourn this application to be dealt with on 31st March 2005 on notice to the London Borough of Camden. That means you must give them notice that the hearing is going to take place on that day, all right? And serve your notice of appeal on them, your appellant's notice, all right?
4. THE CLAIMANT: I have.
5. LORD JUSTICE KEENE: You want an order preserving your position in the meantime until that hearing takes place.
6. THE CLAIMANT: A limited extension of time so that I can get past this period as you rightly said.
7. LORD JUSTICE KEENE: What I am going to do is I am going to make an order requiring the London Borough of Camden to continue to provide you with housing accommodation until the hearing seven days from today.
8. THE CLAIMANT: That is perfectly reasonable. My Lord, thank you for your time and for listening to me.
9. LORD JUSTICE KEENE: Well, I am now going to explain for the purpose of the transcript and for the purpose of whichever judge's attention this matter comes to in a week's time, it will not be me, that the reason why I am doing this is because there seems to me on the papers I have currently got to be an application dated 10th September 2004 under Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996 on the ground that the applicant is homeless. So far as I can see nothing in the papers I have deals with that application. The letter which is formally challenged by the applicant in these proceedings, that is to say the letter dated 6th October 2004, does not, on the face of it, deal with that application. It deals with a somewhat separate matter which is the provision of temporary accommodation by the Council for Mr Daie pending the carrying out of certain works at Adamson Road.
10. As things stand at the moment, I am in no position to take any view on the merits or demerits of that letter. But, on the face of it, it does not appear to be a decision of any kind on the application of 10th September 2004. It may be that the local authority has an answer to that. That is why I am simply adjourning this matter so that they can be represented and can assist the judge in arriving at a sensible decision on this particular matter.
11. Right, Mr Daie, you might want that note back.
12. THE CLAIMANT: Yes, thank you very much.
(Handed)
13. LORD JUSTICE KEENE: I am going to give some directions. I am going to direct that as a matter of urgency a transcript be obtained of the judgment of Hodge J dated 7th March 2005. I would ask you, transcript writer, to see if you can assist in getting that particular transcript expedited. Right. Anything further you wish to say, Mr Daie?
14. THE CLAIMANT: No, that it is fine.