The High Court has refused permission to appeal in two judicial review cases concerning applicants from Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and rejected a renewed request to refer questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).
In a judgment delivered on 27 July 2018, Mr Justice Richard Humphreys considered applications following an earlier composite judgment on whether applicants could remain in the State after an International Protection Office (IPO) recommendation refusing readmission to the protection process, while an appeal and ministerial decision remained pending.
In P.N.S.’s case, the judge said the applicant had been given permission to remain in the State based on parentage of an Irish-born child, and the deportation order had been revoked. The court therefore considered the case moot and refused leave to appeal, saying there was no public interest in prolonging proceedings that no longer concerned deportation.
In K.J.M.’s case, the judge held that leave to appeal was required even though the challenge was framed as concerning enforcement rather than validity of the deportation order. He refused leave after considering the proposed questions, including whether an IPO recommendation was a first-instance decision, the effect of EU law, and whether an appeal from a summary rejection of a renewed protection application required suspensive effect. The judge said some arguments had not been raised at the hearing, and that the proposed question about suspensive effect had already been answered by the CJEU.
The judge also refused the renewed request for a CJEU reference. He said the proposed questions did not warrant a reference, including because the issues could be resolved under domestic law and relevant EU law had been clarified.
The court ordered that costs follow the event. For K.J.M., it stayed discharge of an injunction until 5pm on 6 August 2018, but only to the extent that the injunction restrained removal from the State. The respondents remained free to enforce the deportation order in other ways. The stay did not apply to P.N.S., whose deportation order had been revoked.