CHAPTER 6 APPEALS

Section 68: Appeals

This section provides that landowners, community bodies and other interested parties may appeal against certain decisions by Ministers by means of summary application to the sheriff. The sheriff's decision will be final.

Subsection (1) states that a landowner may appeal against Ministers' decision to enter in the Register a community body's interest in the land or to allow the community body the right to buy.

Subsection (2) enables a community body to appeal against Ministers' decision not to enter the interest in the Register or not to allow the exercise of the right to buy.

Under subsection (3), any person who is a member of the local community (as defined), or any person who has a legal right relating to the land may appeal against Ministers' decisions to enter an interest in the Register or to allow the exercise of the right to buy.

Subsection (4) states that an appeal against entering an interest in the Register may only be made on the grounds that the application was not in the correct form or that it omitted prescribed information; the procedural requirements relating to the application were not adhered to (see section 45); or that the land is not registrable.

Subsection (5) limits the grounds of appeals against Ministers' decision to allow the exercise of the right to buy to either a lack of observation of the procedural requirements laid down (see sections 52 and 56 to 58) or to assertions that the land is not registrable.

Subsection (6) states that an appeal by a community body against Ministers' decision not to register an interest in land may only be made on the grounds that the procedural requirements relating to the application were not adhered to (see section 45) or that Ministers wrongly believed the land not to be registrable. This subsection also provides that an appeal by a community body against Ministers' decision not to consent to the exercise of the right to buy may only be made on the grounds that the relevant procedural requirements were not followed (see sections 52 and 56 to 58).