Order 53 FCT (Civil Procedure) Rules 2025

Order 53 of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules 2025 is about Application and Proceedings in Chambers. It contains the following rules:

1. The business which may be disposed of in chambers by a
   Judge shall consist of the following matters, in addition to
   the matters under any other written law, that is to say;
   (a) Application –
   (i) To issue and serve a writ or other process out of
   the jurisdiction;
   (ii) For substituted service of a writ or other process;
   (iii) To have cases heard during vacation;
   (iv) For enlargement of time;
   (v) For a writ of attachment or for a garnishee order;
   (vi) For payment or transfer to any person of any
   cash or securities standing to his credit in a cause or
   matter where there has been a judgement or order
   declaring the rights or where the title depends only
   upon proof of the identity of the birth, marriage or
   death of any person;
   (vii) As to the guardianship and maintenance of
   advancement of infants;
   (viii) Connected with the management of property; or

(b) Any matter relating to the adoption of children; and
(c) Such other matters of an interlocutory nature as the
Judge may deem expedient to dispose of in chambers.

2. The provisions of Order 30 with regards to interlocutory
   application by way of motion in Court shall apply mutates
   mutandis to application to a Judge in chambers.
3. Notes shall be kept of all proceedings in chambers with
   proper dates, so that all such proceedings in such cause or
   matter may appear consecutively and in chronological
   order, with a short statement of the question or points
   decided at every hearing.
4. Orders made in chambers shall, unless the Court otherwise
   directs, be drawn up by the Registrar and signed by the
   Judge. Such order shall be entered in the same manner as
   orders made in Court.
5. Subject to the provisions of any enactment and of these
   rules, the costs of, and incidental to all proceedings in
   chambers shall be at the discretion of the Court.

6. (1) Where any party to proceedings in chambers does not
   intend to accept the decision of the Court in chambers as
   final, he shall forthwith request to have the summons
   adjourned into Court for argument. If such request is
   refused, the party may proceed by way of motion with
   notice in Court to discharge, set aside or vary the order
   made or the judgment given in chambers.
   (2) The notice of motion shall be filed not later than 7 days
   after the drawing up of the order made in chambers unless
   the Court grants an extension of time on good and
   sufficient reason being shown, and the motion shall be
   heard and determined by the Judge who has dealt with the
   matter in chambers, unless this proves impossible or
   inconvenient owing to such Judge’s death or retirement or prolonged absence.
   (3) This rule shall apply to decisions given by the Court in chambers on appeal from the Chief Registrar under rule 2 of Order 45.

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