REPUBLIC vs. CIRCUIT COURT REGISTRAR; EX PARTE ARTHUR

JUDGMENT OF APALOO C.J. This appeal has one unusual feature. The registrar of the circuit court contests an order made on him by the High Court to issue in favour of a purchaser of immovable property sold in execution of a judgment, a certificate of purchase. The right of a purchaser to such a certificate and the duty of the court to grant it were expressed in mandatory terms by Order 51, r. 21 of the High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules, 1954 (L.N. 140A). It says, in so far as material, “After a sale of immovable property shall have become absolute in manner aforesaid, the Court shall grant a certificate to the person who may have been declared the purchaser at such sale . . .” (The emphasis is mine.) The respondent, Mary Arthur, claimed that she answered the description of “the purchaser” contemplated by the rule and applied to the circuit court, registrar to issue in her favour, such a certificate. The latter declined to do so on the ground that there was no valid s...