Effect of filing a final application for a certificate of validity within time
The facts of that case show that a final application by motion for a grant of certificate of validity after all preliminaries had been completed, was filed within the statutory period, but was not dealt with until after the statutory period had expired and the Court of Appeal therefore held that time ceased to run as from the date of the filing of the final application for a grant of certificate of validity. It is this feature about that case, i.e. the filing of a final application which distinguishes that case from the instant case in which it appears that the preliminaries prescribed in section 10 of the Ordinance had not been completed.
His own, as well as Mr. Commissioner Gwira’s, jurisdiction to make an order in this concession proceedings, depended unquestionably upon whether or not the requirements of section 10 of the Concessions Ordinance had been complied with at the time each of them was called upon to make his particular order. So in Concession Enquiry No. 939 (Accra)2(2) Deane, C.J. (Gold Coast) referring to the Concession Ordinance, pointed out that: “The legislature in fact enacted clearly that matters under this Ordinance should be dealt with strictly according to the Ordinance, and validation or invalidation is not a matter left to be dealt with at large in the discretion of the Courts; its action is limited by the power and jurisdiction conferred by the Ordinance.
