Grieve v Douglas-Home
| Jurisdiction | Scotland |
| Judgment Date | 08 December 1964 |
| Docket Number | No. 33. |
| Date | 08 December 1964 |
| Court | Court of Session (Inner House - First Division) |
1ST DIVISION.
Election LawParliamentary election petitionTrial of petitionGrounds for trying petition elsewhere than in constituency for which election heldRepresentation of the People Act, 1949 (12, 13 and 14 Geo. VI, cap. 68), sec. 110 (3).
The Representation of the People Act, 1949, provides by sec. 110 (3) that a parliamentary election petition shall be tried within the constituency for which the election was held; provided that the Court of Session may, on being satisfied that special circumstances exist rendering it desirable that the petition should be tried elsewhere, appoint some other convenient place for the trial.
The Election Court having fixed the Sheriff Court House at Kinross as the place for the trial of a parliamentary election petition seeking a determination that an election in the constituency of Kinross and West Perthshire was void, a joint application was made by the petitioner and respondent to have the trial held in the Parliament House, Edinburgh, on the grounds, inter alia, that little, if any, evidence would be led; that the issue was primarily one of law; and that the books and law reports necessary for the debate were more readily accessible in Edinburgh than in Kinross.
Held that these grounds constituted special circumstances rendering it desirable that the petition should be tried in Edinburgh; and the application granted.
Christopher Murray Grieve presented a petition under the Representation of the People Act, 1949,1 seeking a determination
that the parliamentary election held on 15th October 1964 for the constituency of Kinross and West Perthshire was void, and that Sir Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home of The Hirsel, Coldstream, Berwickshire, was not duly elected or returned as member for that constituencyThe Election Court having fixed Kinross Sheriff Court House as the place for the trial of the petition, the petitioner and respondent enrolled a joint motion to have the venue changed to a court room in the Parliament House, Edinburgh.
The motion was heard before the First Division in Single Bills on 8th December 1964, when it was submitted for the petitioner that special circumstances existed, within the meaning of the proviso to subsection (3) of section 110 of the 1949 Act, which made it desirable that the trial of the petition should take place in Edinburgh. The special circumstances put forward were that there would be little evidence; that such evidence as there was...
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DPP v Luft
...that consequently the certified question ought to be answered "Yes". These were R. v. Tronoh Mines Ltd. [1952] 1 All E.R. 697 and Grieve v. Douglas-Home 1965 S.L.T. 186. In the former case the defendant, while a general election was pending, published in a national newspaper an advertiseme......