Forbes & Walker Tea Brokers v. Maligaspe and Others – sllr 1998 volume 2 page 378

The case between Forbes & Walker Tea Brokers and Maligaspe and Others, including Asia Siyaka Commodities (Pvt) Ltd and the licensing authority, addressed the lawfulness of granting a produce brokers’ licence to a company entering the business for the first time under the Licensing of Produce Brokers Act, No. 9 of 1979. It was determined that regulations 8(b) and 11 (as amended by 11A) do not require new applicants to submit audited balance sheets for periods in which they had no prior existence, applying the maxim lex non cogit impossibilia. However, the requirement to submit licence applications on or before the 30th of September was found to be applicable to all applicants, including first-time entrants. The Court held that the decision to grant the licence, in breach of the temporal req