High Court grants permission to challenge operation of Authority to Carry Scheme

In a ruling handed down yesterday, Mr Justice Linden has granted permission to apply for judicial review of the Home Office’s refusal of ‘authority to carry’ the claimant to the United Kingdom, which resulted in him being removed from an aircraft shortly before it departed Kabul airport in Afghanistan.  The Home Office had prevented the airline from carrying the claimant under the Authority to Carry Scheme 2015, made under the Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015.  The claimant, D9, asserts that he is in possession of Indefinite Leave to Remain and so the 2015 Scheme cannot thwart his lawful arrival on UK territory.  The 2015 Scheme, made under subordinate legislation, would otherwise frustrate his rights as conferred by the Immigration Act 1971.

Mr Justice Linden also granted an application by the Secretary of State to seek to rely on secret evidence, under section 6 of the Justice and Security Act 2013, on the basis that the material was disclosable to the claimant under the Secretary of State’s duty of candour.  D9’s Special Advocate did not seek to rely on the closed material, the issues in the judicial review raising questions of statutory construction.  The Court nevertheless ruled that it would be in the interests of the fair and effective administration of justice to permit the Secretary of State to apply to rely on the secret material.

The judgment of Mr Justice Linden can be accessed here.

D9 was represented by Stephen Cragg QC and Anthony Vaughan, instructed by Fahad Ansari of Duncan Lewis.