The High Court made no order as to costs after an immigration judicial review became moot when the Minister for Justice and Equality granted the applicant one-year Stamp 4 permission. The court said the grant had no causal connection with the proceedings.
The case concerned the Minister’s refusal, on 12 March 2018, to process an application for permission to remain in the State. The applicant had made that application under section 4 of the Immigration Act 2004 on 31 August 2017. The High Court granted leave to bring judicial review proceedings on 9 April 2018 to challenge the refusal.
The applicant then sought a stay on the process of making a possible deportation order under section 3 of the Immigration Act 1999. The judge refused the request, saying it was more appropriate to let the Minister make a decision and consider a stay if an adverse decision followed.
The applicant made representations under section 3 on 3 May 2018. On 3 July 2018, the Minister decided in the applicant’s favour and granted Stamp 4 permission for one year. The judge observed that the favourable decision would not have occurred if the requested stay had been granted. He described the judicial review proceedings as moot and said the parties agreed they could be struck out.
The remaining dispute was over costs. The respondent sought all of its costs; the applicant sought some portion of their own. The judge held that the default position in a moot case was no order as to costs unless there was a causal link between the event that made the case moot and the proceedings. Here, the grant of permission was the event that ended the case, and the only connection was that the court had refused to stop the Minister’s process, which would have continued anyway.
The judge therefore made no order as to costs. He also said that neither side had argued for that outcome, so neither could be treated as having prevailed on the costs issue. The judgment does not state that the court ruled on the lawfulness of the original refusal to process the application.