R v Immigration appeal tribunal ex parte Omar Mohammed Ali
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 23 August 1994 |
| Date | 23 August 1994 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division |
Queen's Bench Division
Sedley LJJ
E Yacubu for the applicant
Miss B Hewson for the respondent
Cases referred to in the judgment:
Bugdaycay and ors v Secretary of State for the Home DepartmentELR [1987] 1 AC 514: [1987] Imm AR 250.
Marion Gaima v Secretary of State for the Home Department [1989] Imm AR 205.
John Mpyanguli v Secretary of State for the Home Department(sub nom. Arthur Kingori) [1994] Imm AR 539.
Koyazia Kaja v Secretary of State for the Home Department [1995] Imm AR 1.
Political asylum dismissal of appeal refusal of leave to appeal standard of proof whether Secretary of State should have referred case back to the appellate authorities the approach of the court following the institution of a comprehensive system of appeals. Immigration Act 1971 s. 21.
Application for leave to move for judicial review of refusal by the Tribunal of leave to appeal against the dismissal by a special adjudicator of an appeal against the refusal by the Secretary of State to grant the applicant asylum. The adjudicator had heard oral evidence from the applicant, whom he had found evasive and unreliable.
Counsel argued that the adjudicator, following Kaja had applied the wrong standard of proof: the Secretary of State should have referred the case back to the appellate authorities under section 21 of the 1971 Act. He also argued following Bugdaycay and Gaima that the court, in such a case should scrutinise matters most carefully.
Held
1. Following Mpyanguli, once the adjudicator had concluded that the story put forward by the applicant was not credible, no question of the standard of proof arose.
2. There were no grounds for arguing that the Secretary of State should have exercised his discretion under section 21 of the 1971 Act.
3. Albeit in Bugdaycay it had been said that the courts would scrutinise with very great care claims for asylum, once an entire appellate system had, as now, been interposed between the Secretary of State and the courts, the eye of the court would shift to ensuring that the appellate process had been lawfully and properly conducted.
Sedley J: The applicant Omar Mohammed Ali entered this country on 2 November 1993 and on the same day applied for asylum. Following interview, his application was refused by the Secretary of State by a letter dated 12 November 1993. He appealed to the special adjudicator, whose decision though undated was given...
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