Johannesburg - The Constitutional Court on Thursday set aside a high court judgment ordering the Tebeila Institute to pay its own costs in a case against the Limpopo College of Nursing and the Limpopo health MEC.
“The interests of justice favour granting the applicant leave to appeal. They also favour intervening to set aside the costs award.”
The ruling in the Gauteng division of the high court, functioning as the Limpopo division, also ordered that “the respondents must pay the applicant's costs in the high court”.
The Tebeila Institute of Leadership Education, Governance, and Training challenged the Limpopo College of Nursing in the high court on the policy to accept only students who had left school no more than three years previously.
“This, the applicant complained, irrationally and unfairly excluded many worthy prospective students who had left school more than three years previously. The high court agreed.”
However, the high court specified that each party pay its own costs.
“This was very plainly a mistake. The applicant was entitled to its costs.
“This court found that the general rule in constitutional litigation between a private party and the State is that if the private party is successful it should have costs paid by the State.”
Sapa