The High Court has refused all relief sought by Mr C in a challenge to an International Protection Appeals Tribunal (IPAT) decision on his subsidiary protection application.
In a judgment delivered on 21 December 2018, Mr Justice Max Barrett rejected Mr C’s argument that IPAT had to explain why its decision differed from an earlier decision in a separate application by Mr O. In that earlier case, IPAT had found Mr O established he was gay; in Mr C’s appeal, it found he had not established that he was gay.
The court said the applications involved different evidence and produced separate decisions. It rejected the premise that the evidence was largely similar or that IPAT had made a finding about Mr C’s sexuality in Mr O’s case. The judgment also noted that the doctrine of precedent did not apply to IPAT.
The challenged decision treated Mr O’s evidence about his own sexuality as credible, while finding that Mr C’s general credibility had not been established. The court found no legal flaw in that reasoning: Mr C had to establish his own application, and Mr O’s evidence was offered in support. IPAT had assessed the evidence in Mr C’s appeal as a whole.
Mr C also argued that the decision wrongly affirmed recommendations made under the Refugee Act 1996 and the International Protection Act 2015. The court rejected that ground, finding IPAT had affirmed what was before it. The judgment records that Mr C had first received a negative recommendation under section 13 of the 1996 Act, which was deemed under the 2015 Act to be a recommendation under section 39(3)(b) or (c).
A further argument concerned the weight IPAT gave to discrepancies in the two men’s evidence about their physical relationship. The court did not decide that ground: leave to seek judicial review on it had not been granted.
The court refused all relief, including the requested order of certiorari to quash the decision. The judgment addresses the grounds presented and does not make a general finding about the men beyond the findings in their respective applications.