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All E.R. 283 at page 287. The language of Tucker L.J. is
particularly appropriate to the present application and so I
set out the passage which was cited in the case of Narang:
"It is said by counsel for the applicant
that .. after the length of time that has elapsed the applicant cannot deal with the matters raised against him or adduce the witnesses to deal with it. We do not know nearly enough about the facts of the case to form any opinion as to the nature of the applicant's defence or the extent to which he will be prejudiced in the presentation of it by the delay which has taken place. These are all matters which can and, no doubt, will -- be considered by the tribunal of any civilised country which is dealing with a criminal matter. The length of time that has elapsed will, no doubt, be a relevant consideration for this tribunal to consider in weighing the evidence, but there is nothing in the material evidence which would, in my view, show that it is impossible for the applicant to obtain justice.'"
In addition to what was said by Tucker L.J. I draw
attention to what Viscount Dilhorne said about the caution
which should be adopted in the case of "speculative
possibilities" at page 276.
The other House of Lords case was the case of Kakis
[1978] 1 WLR 779. At page 782 Lord Diplock dealt with the
question of the passage of time and "unjust and oppressive" in
section 11 (3) of the Act. He said:
"'Unjust' I regard as directed primarily to the risk of prejudice to the accused in the conduct of the trial itself, 'oppressive' as directed to hardship to the accused resulting from changes in his circumstances that have occurred during the period to be taken into consideration; but there is room for overlapping, and between them they would cover all cases where to return him would not be fair. Delay in the commencement or conduct of extradition proceedings which is brought about by the accused himself by fleeing the country, concealing his whereabouts or evading arrest cannot, in my view, be relied upon as a ground for holding it to be either unjust or oppressive to return him.
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