Courts-Martial (Appeals) Act 1951

4 Application for leave to appeal

(1) Leave to appeal to the Court shall not be given except in pursuance of an application in that behalf made by or on behalf of the appellant, and lodged, within the prescribed period, with the registrar, being an application in the prescribed form and specifying the grounds on which leave to appeal is sought and such other particulars, if any, as may be prescribed.

(2) Rules of court may provide that, in such circumstances as may be specified in the rules, any such application as aforesaid which is lodged with such person (other than the registrar) as is specified in the rules shall be treated, for the purposes of the last foregoing subsection, as having been lodged with the registrar.

(3) Where an application for leave to appeal to the Court is lodged with a person other than the registrar in accordance with rules of court having effect by virtue of the last foregoing subsection, it shall be the duty of that person—

(a) to forward the application to the registrar with as much expedition as practicable ; and

(b) if it appears to that person that it is practicable to furnish the registrar, before the receipt by him of the application, with such particulars of the application as will enable him to prepare a copy of it, and that in all the circumstances it is expedient so to do, forthwith to furnish him with those particulars.

(4) Where an appellant convicted by a court-martial held outside the United Kingdom duly presents a petition under the last foregoing section and, before the expiration of the period within which an application for leave to appeal to the Court against the conviction is required by subsection (1) of this section to be lodged, the appropriate authority for the purposes of subsection (2) of the last foregoing section receives from the appellant such an application accompanied by a request that that authority will forward the application to the registrar in the event of its being decided not to grant the petition, it shall be the duty of that authority to comply with the request, and accordingly, the right conferred upon the appellant by subsection (1) of the last foregoing section shall, if it has not previously become exercisable, become exercisable on the happening of that event.

(5) Except in the case of a conviction involving sentence of death, the Court may extend the period within which an application for leave to appeal must be lodged, whether that period has expired or not.

(6) In considering whether or not to give leave to appeal, the Court shall have regard to any expression of opinion made by the Judge Advocate of His Majesty's Fleet or the Judge Advocate General that the case is a fit one for appeal, and, if any such expression is so made, may, without more, give leave to appeal.

(7) Where the Court dismiss an application for leave to appeal they may, if they consider the application to have been frivolous or vexatious, order that any sentence passed upon the applicant in the proceedings from which it was sought to bring the appeal shall begin to run from the day on which the Court dismiss the application.