THE REGISTRAR COURT OF APPEAL v KARL PELECHOWSKI [1998] NSWCA 184

REGISTRAR COURT OF APPEAL v PELECHOWSKI

SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COURT OF APPEAL

HANDLEY, BEAZLEY and STEIN JJA 4 and 11 February 1998, 11 February 1998

[1998] NSWCA 184 BAIL — PENDING SPECIAL LEAVE APPLICATION TO HIGH COURT

The Court of Appeal, having convicted the applicant of criminal contempt and sentenced him to imprisonment for a fixed term of 6 months, declined to grant bail pending the hearing of an application for special leave to appeal.

Handley JA Mr McQuillen has applied for the grant of bail pending the hearing of an application by Karl Pelechowski for special leave to appeal from decisions of this Court of 28 October 1997 and 3 February 1998.

An application for special leave to appeal was filed in the High Court registry today which arguably enables this Court to grant bail under the Bail Act 1978. This would only be the case if that part of the definition of appeal in s4(1) of the Act, which includes an application for leave to appeal, applies to an application for special leave to appeal to the High Court which is not self-evident.

Assuming that this Court does have power to grant bail under the Bail Act, we are of the view that this is not a proper case in which that power should be exercised. The Court unanimously convicted the applicant of the common law offence of contempt of court on 28 October 1997, and on 3 February 1998 we were unanimously of the view that the appropriate sentence was a fixed term of six months.

The Court was informed, without objection, that the applicant's special leave application is not likely to be heard by the High Court until August this year by which time the sentence will have been substantially, if not completely, served.

However, the applicant is not bound to wait until the hearing of his special leave application before applying to a Justice of the High Court for bail. The decisions of that Court. commencing from Chamberlain v The Queen (No 1) (1983) 103 CLR 514, establish that the jurisdiction of the High Court to grant bail pending the hearing of a special leave application or an appeal is a limited one and exceptional circumstances must be shown.