R (on the application of DN (Rwanda)) (AP) (Appellant) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (Respondent)

Case summary

Case ID

UKSC/2018/0140

Parties

Appellant(s)

DN

Respondent(s)

Secretary of State for the Home Department

Intervener(s)

Bail for Immigration Detainees

Issue

The Supreme Court is asked to consider (1) whether R (on the application of Draga) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2012] EWCA Civ 842 (“Draga”) was correctly decided and (2) whether the Court of Appeal in this case was, in fact, bound for the reasons it gave to follow Draga.

Facts

DN is a Rwandan national who had been granted refugee status but was subsequently convicted in the UK of certain offences. At the conclusion of DN’s imprisonment, the Secretary of State for the Home Department made a deportation order using powers conferred by the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 (Specification of Particularly Serious Crimes) Order 2004 (“2004 Order”). On 31 January 2008, the Secretary of State for the Home Department, using its powers of administrative detention conferred by schedule 3, paragraph 2(3) of the Immigration Act 1971, made an order for the DN’s detention pending deportation. DN spent 242 days in detention pending deportation. DN brought a claim for judicial review of the deportation order, but the proceedings were stayed to enable the question of the legality of the 2004 Order to be resolved in EN (Serbia) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2009] EWCA Civ 630, [2010] QB 633. The Court of Appeal found that the 2004 Order was ultra vires and consequently unlawful. DN therefore amended his judicial review proceedings to concentrate on the lawfulness of the detention. However, these proceedings were brought to a halt by the decision of the Court of Appeal in Draga. In light of the decision in Draga, it was agreed between the parties that the Administrative Court in this case was bound by the judgment of the Court of Appeal in Draga. It was therefore bound to find against DN on the question of whether his imprisonment was unlawful ab initio for public law error. DN appealed and the substantive appeal was heard by the Court of Appeal on 18 January 2018. The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal. DN now appeals to the Supreme Court.

Date of issue

16 July 2018

Judgment details

Judgment date

26 February 2020

Neutral citation

[2020] UKSC 7

Judgment links

Judgment summary

26 February 2020

Appeal

Justices

Lord Kerr

Lord Wilson

Lord Carnwath

Lady Black

Lord Kitchin

Hearing dates

Full hearing

Start date

7 October 2019

End date

8 October 2019

Watch hearings

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