Act of Adjournal (Consolidation) 1988

Appeal against reference

67.—(1) Where an order making a reference is made under rule 65, any party to the proceedings who is aggrieved by the order may within 14 days thereafter appeal against the order to the High Court sitting as a court of appeal, but this rule does not apply to such an order made in proceedings in the High Court sitting as a court of appeal and proceedings on petitions to that Court for the exercise of its nobile officium.

(2) Any appeal under this rule shall be made by lodging with the clerk of the court that made the order a note of appeal in the form set out in Form 32 of Schedule 1 and signed by the appellant or his solicitor; and a copy of the note shall be served by the appellant on each other party to the proceedings.

(3) If the clerk of the court that made the order is not the Clerk of Justiciary, he shall record the lodging of the note in the record of proceedings and shall forthwith transmit the note to the Clerk of Justiciary, together with the record and a certified copy of the relative indictment.

(4) In disposing of an appeal under this section the High Court (sitting as a court of appeal) may—

(a) if the appeal is against an order made in proceedings on indictment in which the accused has been indicted for trial in the High Court, either sustain or dismiss the appeal and in the latter case itself cause the reference to be transmitted to the Registrar of the European Court;

(b) if the appeal is against an order made in any other proceedings, either sustain or dismiss the appeal and in either case remit the proceedings to the court of first instance with instructions to proceed as accords;

(c) in any case, give such directions for other procedure as it thinks fit.

(5) Unless the court making the order otherwise directs, a reference shall not be transmitted to the Registrar of the European Court before the time allowed by this rule for appealing against the order has expired or before the appeal has been disposed of or withdrawn.