CCT55/04

[2005] ZACC 15

2006 (2) BCLR 274 (CC)

2006 (1) SA 505 (CC)

Skweyiya J

12 May 2005

7 October 2005

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12144/2230

There are two High Court judgments and two Supreme Court of Appeal judgments related to this case. The High Court judgment which granted a provisional restraint order is reported as National Director of Public Prosecutions v Phillips and Others 2002 (4) SA 60 (W). In the proceedings which gave rise to the present application, the applicants applied to the High Court to rescind the restraint order: Andrew Lionel Phillips and Others v National Director of Public Prosecutions Case No 03/15171, 12 December 2003, unreported. The first Supreme Court of Appeal judgment is reported as Phillips and Others v National Director of Public Prosecutions 2003 (6) SA 447 (SCA). The second Supreme Court of Appeal judgment is reported as National Director of Public Prosecutions v Phillips and Others 2005 (5) SA 265 (SCA). In this case the applicants seek leave to appeal to the Constitutional Court on the basis that the High Court decision was correct and the two Supreme Court of Appeal judgments were incorrect. See also the related Constitutional Court judgment Phillips and Another v National Director of Public Prosecutions (Witwatersrand Local Division) and Others 2003 (3) SA 345 (CC) ; 2003 (4) BCLR 357 (CC).

Application for leave to appeal against the SCA's confirmation of a restraint order made in terms of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act 121 of 1998. Skweyiya J writing for the Court dismissed the application for leave to appeal. The applicants had not challenged the constitutionality of relevant sections of the Act or raised certain sections of the Constitution now relied on in the lower courts. A constitutional complaint that was not pleaded in the lower courts will not be entertained. Where an Act of Parliament regulates the circumstances in which a court may vary its own orders, the case need be decided only within the provisions of the Act.