VA171332013

The appellant in these proceedings is the Entry Clearance Officer (�ECO�). However, for convenience I refer to the parties as they were before the First-tier Tribunal.

The appellant is a citizen of Pakistan born on 18 November 1959. She made an application for entry clearance as a visitor, that application having a date of 27 June 2013 on the visa application form (�VAF�) itself but recorded as having been received by the respondent on 3 July 2013. For the purposes of this appeal the actual date is not material.

Her appeal against that decision came before First-tier Tribunal Judge Ghaffar on 16 June 2014. At that hearing, the sponsor Mr Hussain Abid, the appellant�s son, attended and gave evidence.

The Secretary of State sought permission to appeal against the judge�s decision on the basis that, in fact, the appellant�s right of appeal was limited to race discrimination and human rights grounds. This, it was contended, is the effect of section 52 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013 (�the Crime and Courts Act�). Permission to appeal was granted on that basis by a Judge of the First-tier Tribunal.

At the end of the hearing I informed the sponsor that my provisional view was that the First-tier Judge had made an error in law and that it was likely that I would change his decision and dismiss the appeal. In more formal language, I have decided that the decision of the First-tier Tribunal does involve the making of an error on a point of law such as to require the decision to be set aside to be re-made.