C7 (appellant) v The Secretary of State for the Home Department (respondent)
Tuesday 14 February 2023
Appeal against a decision of Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) dated 29/6/21 refusing C7 his costs of pursuing a statutory appeal.
On 30/3/20, the SSHD gave C7 notice of an intention to deprive him of his citizenship and made an order depriving him on the same day. C7 appealed to SIAC. On 18/3/21 SIAC allowed C7’s appeal on the basis that the decision rendered him stateless. On 1/4/21, SSHD withdrew the decision to deprive C7 of his citizenship. C7 applied to SIAC for his costs. SSHD and C7 filed written submissions. On 29/6/21, SIAC refused C7 his costs.
SIAC held that it was a creature of statute and derived its power exclusively from the SIAC Act 1997. The statute gave SIAC no express power to award costs and it had no inherent jurisdiction. Even if it had such power, SIAC held that the SSHD’s conduct had not been unreasonable and therefore if that was the touchstone, it would have refused the application to exercise its discretion in C7’s favour even though C7’s appeal had been successful.
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