The Court of Appeal has overturned a decision of Mr Justice Edis and held that a curfew imposed on the claimant, Mr Gedi, under immigration powers was unlawful. The court held that the government has no power to impose a curfew either under powers for electronic monitoring or under general powers for conditions under the Immigration Act 1971. The SSHD had been found to be routinely imposing curfews without any power.
Since a curfew had never been imposed on the Claimant as a condition of bail and without any other lawful authority, the Court of Appeal declared that the curfew was unlawful in its entirety and as a consequence the Claimant succeeded in his action in false imprisonment. The case has already led to a change of policy on the part of the Government in respect of immigration curfews and is of major significance to all persons who have been or are subject to potential detention under immigration powers.
The full judgment can be read here.
Ravi Naik, our head of public law, represented the Claimant. Tom Hickman of Blackstone Chambers acted as Counsel.
Read Ravi Naik's commentary of the case here
Contact ITN's head of public law Ravi Naik here