Murray-Aynsley CJ:

This is an application by a person who is clearly an alien within the meaning of s. 6 of the Banishment Ordinance.That being so there remains to be considered a question of construction of the section.The conditions set out under (a) have not been fulfilled; it has to be considered whether what appears under (b) is a qualification of (a) or an alternative to it.

The amendment which added (b) in 1928 was apparently based on the United Kingdom Aliens Order, 1920, but in that case the word "or" was used.Here there is no "or" but the fullstop at the end of (a) was retained and remained there in the present revised edition although alterations were made in the section at that time.If one pays regards to the fullstop, (b) can have no meaning at all.If one disregards it, as one should in strictness do every time in construing a statute, then it seems to me that the only grammatical construction possible of the section is to make what occurs after (b) a qualification to the rest of the section.

The rule nisi must be made absolute.

Order accordingly.