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Appeal. As such, the latter Court was asked to only examine afresh issues that
had been determined twice in fact and in law. Furthermore, as it emerges from
the judgment on review, the Court of Appeal dismissed the application for lack
of merit after concluding that it did not meet the required criteria warranting the
review. ln light of these considerations, it appears that such a review process
would not have required over four (4) years for completion. This Court is
consequently of the opinion that the complexity of the matter is not of a
determinant relevance in assessing reasonableness in the present case.
6S.Conversely, the Court notes that the main issue in contention between the
Parties is that of who bears responsibility for the delay. lt is therefore proper to
undertake a joint examination of the two others factors in relation to that issue,
which are the behaviour of the Applicant and that of the Respondent State's
judicial authorities especially in light of their duty of due diligence.
69.The Court notes in this regard, that the Applicants aver that the delay is
attributable to the Respondent State as "no substantial step was taken to
determine the revieW'. They state in support of that contention that, after the
notice was lodged on 24 March 2013, the case was adjourned sine die on 23
lvlay 2016 and no hearing had been scheduled more than two (2) years after
the notice was filed and until the present Application was submitted. The
Respondent State on its part alleges that the Applicants are responsible for the
delay as they failed to avail a copy of their application for review to allow the
case to be heard.
70. ln light of information on file, this Court notes that the Applicants do not prove
intent on the part of the Court of Appeal to delay the review process. They do
not either give evidence of a timely filing of the copy of the application for
review. This court is of the opinion that intent or fault cannot be established
merely by stating that substantial steps were not taken without providing
evidence to that effect. Similarly, it would be improper to consider that, as the
Applicants aver, adjourning a matter sine die automatically resulted in undue
delay without assessing the reason for such decision. ln any event, the review
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