Under 25 and 26 Vict. c. 35, the hours for opening and closing licensed houses are fixed at 8 a.m. and 11 p.m. Section 2 gives a discretionary power to the licensing magistrates to vary these hours ‘in any particular locality within any county or district or burgh requiring other hours for opening and closing.’ The magistrates of a burgh defined by metes and bounds a certain part of the same, which included all the licensed houses therein, and passed a resolution that it was requisite that licensed houses in the particular locality thus defined should be closed at 10 p.m. This hour they inserted in the certificates. Held (affirming judgment of C. of S.) that the resolution was ultra vires of the magistrates, their discretionary power being to select a ‘particular locality,’ whereas they had virtually applied the exceptional rule to the whole burgh, an evasion of the statute, and opposed, alike to the spirit and the letter thereof.
Judges:
Lord Chancellor Cairns, Lord Chelmsford, and Lord Selborne
Citations:
[1874] UKHL 487, 11 SLR 487
Links:
Jurisdiction:
Scotland
Licensing
Updated: 20 November 2022; Ref: scu.650217