MAURITIUS Law and Practice Contributed by: André Robert and Mushtaq Namdarkhan, BLC Robert & Associates
try of the court and served on the respondent(s) within 21 days of the date of the judgment appealed, unless the appellant can show good cause why it was not possible to comply with the 21-day period (in which case, a separate appli- cation for an extension of time must be made or a statute must provide otherwise). A respondent who wishes to resist an appeal must file a notice to this effect with the registry of the Supreme Court and serve such notice to resist appeal on the appellant no later than two months after Appeals against a judgment of a district court, intermediate court or industrial court must be notified to the clerk of that court within 21 days of the date of judgment, and the appellant has a further fortnight of giving recognisance for the costs of the appeal to file the appeal with the registry of the Supreme Court and serve it on the respondent(s). being served with the appeal. District and Civil Court Appeals An appeal before the Court of Civil Appeal will operate as a stay of execution or of proceedings under the judgment or order appealed from. In appeals before the Supreme Court in its appel- late jurisdiction, or appeals from the bankruptcy division under the Supreme Court under the Insolvency Act, a stay is not automatic and must be sought from the appellate court. Judicial Committee Appeals In relation to appeals to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (even in cases of appeal as of right), leave to appeal must first be applied from the Supreme Court. Conditional leave is first applied for and if the conditions (mainly to provide security for costs and sending the ref- erence to the Judicial Committee) are complied with, then final leave is applied for. Once final
leave is obtained, the procedure before the Judi- cial Committee applies. Applications for conditional leave and final leave are made by way of motion or petition supported by affidavit evidence; the motion or petition must be made within 21 days of the judgment to be appealed, and the applicant must give all other parties concerned notice of its intended applica- tion. When considering the leave application, the court has discretion as to whether to order a stay of execution of the judgment appealed. 10.4 Issues Considered by the Appeal Court at an Appeal The appellate court will not conduct a rehear- ing of the first instance decision and hear wit- nesses anew. The appellate court will typically review the transcript of proceedings, the evi- dence adduced and consider written and oral submissions of counsel with the aim of deciding whether the lower court has committed errors of law. The appellate court will not typically over- turn findings of fact unless they are perverse, in the sense that no reasonable judge or magistrate could have made such findings based on the evidence on record. New pleadings of fact cannot be taken on appeal, although the appellate court may in certain circumstances allow new evidence to be adduced on appeal where such evidence could not have been available to a party in the lower court and the evidence is relevant to issues to be determined in the appeal. It is possible (subject to the discretion of the appellate court) to argue points of law which were not raised before the lower court.
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