Judgment No. CCZ 9/14 3 Const. Application No. CCZ 276/12 No further action was taken by the State to bring the applicants to court and on 31 July 2001 the first applicant left the country for Canada. The other three (3) remained in the country. On 21 September 2011 the Canadian authorities deported the first applicant to Zimbabwe. Following his arrival, the State proceeded to serve summons on all the applicants, starting with the first applicant on 28 September 2011. The second and third applicants were served on 29 November 2011 with the fourth applicant being served last on 2 December 2011. In terms of the summons, the applicants were to be tried on 15 December 2011. On the scheduled date the trial failed to take off yet again. The reason given by the State was that the docket and the record could not be located. The matter was further remanded to 9 January 2012. Again, for reasons not specified by any of the parties, the trial failed to start and the matter was remanded to 17 January 2012, on which occasion the applicants applied for referral of the matter to this Court. WHETHER THE APPLICATION IS PROPERLY BEFORE THE COURT It is conceded by the State that the application is properly before the Court. The matter was referred to this Court by the Regional Magistrate following an application by the applicants in terms of s 24 (2) of the former Constitution of Zimbabwe, which provides as follows: “24 ENFORCEMENT OF PROTECTIVE PROVISIONS (1) ..n/a (2) If in any proceedings in the High Court or in any court subordinate to the High Court any question arises as to the contravention of the Declaration of Rights, the person presiding in that court may, and if so requested by any party to the proceedings shall, refer the question to the Supreme Court unless, in his opinion, the raising of the question is merely frivolous or vexatious.”