Services / Administrative cases
Appealing an administrative order: fifteen days
Someone served with an administrative order usually thinks first of the Administrative Court, but the statute puts a step before that, and the step runs for only fifteen days. Letting it pass costs more than it appears to, because it reaches the right to sue as well.
Fifteen days, to the official who made the order
Section 44 of the Administrative Procedure Act B.E. 2539 (1996) provides that, subject to section 48, where an administrative order was not made by a Minister and no specific law lays down an internal appeal route, the party appeals by filing with the official who made the order, within fifteen days of being notified of it. The point most often mistaken is where it goes: the statute directs it to the official who made the order, not to a higher body.
It must be in writing, and it must give reasons
The second paragraph of section 44 requires the appeal to be in writing, stating the objections and the facts or the law relied on. That requirement means a letter saying only that the writer disagrees does not carry what the provision asks for, and in practice it also wastes the best opportunity there is to have the official reconsider the order themselves.
The appeal does not stop the order
The third paragraph of section 44 says it plainly: an appeal is not a ground for staying enforcement of the order, unless a stay is directed under the first paragraph of section 63/2. This cuts against the common assumption that filing an appeal puts matters on hold. Anyone who needs the order stopped has to seek a stay as a separate matter from the appeal itself.
The timetable on the official's side
Section 45 requires the official who made the order to consider the appeal and notify the appellant without delay, and in any case within thirty days of receiving it. If they agree in whole or in part, they change the order within that period. If they do not, they report their opinion with reasons to the person empowered to decide the appeal within the same period, and that person must finish within thirty days of receiving the report, extendable by not more than thirty days provided written notice is given before the original period runs out.
Why skipping the step reaches the right to sue
The second paragraph of section 42 of the Establishment of Administrative Courts and Administrative Court Procedure Act B.E. 2542 (1999) provides that where a law lays down particular steps for remedying a grievance, an administrative case may be brought only once those steps have been taken and a decision has been made under that law, or none has been made within a reasonable time or within the time that law prescribes. The appeal is therefore not an option but a precondition. Once it is done, section 49 requires the case to be filed within ninety days of the day the cause of action was known or ought to have been known, unless a specific law provides otherwise — so alongside the fifteen days in section 44 and the thirty-day cycles in section 45, the date of each notification is the date to record.
PREPARE
What to bring
- The order in full, and evidence of the date it was notified
- The facts and documents that answer the order
- The specific statute, if it has an appeal route of its own
- All prior correspondence with the agency
- The harm already occurring, if a stay is to be sought
QUESTIONS
Questions this raises
The fifteen days have passed. Is anything left?
The first thing to check is whether the fifteen days in section 44 applied at all, because that section governs only where the order was not made by a Minister and no specific law provides an appeal route. A number of specific statutes allow thirty or sixty days. The next question is what date the notification actually took effect, which is a question of fact and can be contested.
I appealed and the agency has gone quiet.
Section 45 sets thirty days for the official who made the order and a further thirty for the person deciding the appeal, extendable by not more than thirty with written notice before the period expires. The second paragraph of section 42 already provides for the case where no decision is made within a reasonable time or within the time the law prescribes. Silence therefore does not close off the court, but the dates of filing and of expiry have to be kept.
LAW
The legislation
- Administrative Procedure Act B.E. 2539 (1996), section 44
- Administrative Procedure Act B.E. 2539 (1996), section 45
- Administrative Court Procedure Act B.E. 2542 (1999), section 42
- Administrative Court Procedure Act B.E. 2542 (1999), section 49
ENQUIRIES
