ASSA
A
B
inspecting the documents, ruled that the documents should not be
disclosed but indicated that reasons for this ruling would be
given in the course of this judgment.
In coming to the conclusion that production should not be
ordered both on the grounds of relevance and public interest
immunity, the court was influenced by the following factors:
C
!
1. That both of Mr. Osman's applications are based on the
court's supervisory and not originating jurisdiction.
When the court is exercising its supervisory jurisdiction,
discovery is not given as a matter of course, but is given
in limited circumstances when the applicant shows that the
disclosure is reasonably necessary for disposing fairly of
the proceedings.
D
E
F
ידי
G
H
In
2. The court had already inspected the Hong Kong
counterparts of communications passing between the Hong
Kong Government and the United Kingdom Government and had
come to the conclusion that those documents were
unnecessary for disposing fairly of the proceedings.
those circumstances it was highly unlikely that the copies
of those documents in the possession of the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office would be any more probative. The lack
of evidential value of the documents which were inspected
also reflected on the merits of the whole application.
indicated that the application had at least some of the
qualities of a "fishing expedition".
It
3. Prime facie, at any rate, the claim for public
interest immunity was properly established by the
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