R v Secretary of state for the home department ex parte Baljit Singh
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 21 July 1993 |
| Date | 21 July 1993 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division |
Queen's Bench Division
Auld J
P Epstein for the applicant
R Jay for the respondent
Case referred to in the judgment:
R v Secretary of State for the Home Department ex parte Salladurai Jeyakumaran (unreported, QBD, 28 June 1985).*
Political asylum refusal by Secretary of State applicant associated with a body allegedly terrorist in nature and acting unlawfully in its own country whether Secretary of State justified in concluding that such a person facing legitimate processes of law within his own country should not normally be accorded the status of a refugee whether Secretary of State had adopted correct approach to assessment of attitude of the authorities to improper conduct by those enforcing law and order. Handbook on procedures and criteria for determining refugee status (1979) para. 65.
The applicant for leave to move for judicial review was a citizen of India. He had been refused political asylum. The basis of his claim was that he was persecuted by the police in the Punjab, who used improper means to enforce law and order. The applicant was associated with a group which in the Punjab had been involved in terrorist activities.
Counsel submitted that the Secretary of State had not asked himself the right question when considering whether the assertions by the applicant could ground a claim to a well-founded fear of persecution.
Held
1. The Secretary of State, in assessing the applicant's claim had correctly followed the principles set out in Jeyakumaran.
2. The Secretary of State had quite properly borne in mind that a person who was associated with a terrorist group acting unlawfully in its own country should not normally be given refugee status when facing legitimate processes of law within his own country, where those processes were properly applied.
3. The Secretary of State had clearly considered, as he was obliged to consider, the individual circumstances of the applicant.
Auld J: This is an adjourned application by Baljit Singh for leave to apply for judicial review against the Secretary of State's decision which had the effect of refusing him asylum as a refugee.
The applicant is a Sikh and a member of a body which seeks the establishment in the Punjab of an independent Sikh state to be known as Kalistan. He has claimed asylum as a refugee in this country, broadly based on allegations of persecution by members of the police force in...
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