The High Court has refused an applicant’s request for leave to challenge a deportation order made in 2009, finding that the application was out of time and did not disclose substantial grounds for judicial review.
The applicant, identified in the judgment as A.L.J. [Togo], sought to quash the order on the basis that it had lost effect because it had not been enforced for several years. The court recorded that the applicant accepted the order was valid when made. His case was that subsequent delay and inaction had made it invalid by 2015.
The respondents argued that a deportation order remains in force unless revoked under section 3(11) of the Immigration Act 1999. They said the appropriate route was an application for revocation, which the applicant had already made and which was pending.
Ms Justice Stewart said the order’s validity had to be judged by the material available when it was made. She accepted that it remained in force unless revoked by the Minister for Justice. She also said that a claim based on changed circumstances should be pursued through a revocation application, rather than an application to quash the original order.
The court rejected the applicant’s claim that there had been improper or excessive delay in implementing the order. It found that he had not had a valid Togolese passport or other emergency travel document, and that the Minister had been seeking an emergency document from the Togolese authorities since May 2014. The judgment also records that the applicant did not report to the Garda National Immigration Bureau from December 2011 until May 2014, and that he had moved in and out of state accommodation over the years.
The judge said she was not satisfied that the alleged inaction had been established. She refused to extend the time to bring the judicial review application and added that, even if time had been extended, the applicant had not shown substantial grounds for the challenge. The application for leave was refused. The judgment did not revoke the deportation order; it remained in force unless and until the Minister chose to revoke it.