OA186272013

Judge Quinn of the First Tier Tribunal following a hearing at Hatton Cross on 17 March 2015 allowed the appeal of the respondent. The respondent is a citizen of Bangladesh whose date of birth is given as 12 June 1991. On 18 June 2014 her application for a Certificate of Entitlement to the Right of Abode in UK as child of the late Mosrab Ali was refused by the appellant for reasons given in the letter of that date. Judge Quinn gave reasons for allowing the appeal and his determination was promulgated on 7 April 2015. He heard oral evidence and also received documentary evidence.

In a detailed and comprehensive determination the Judge explained why he had allowed the appeal despite his doubts about genuineness of the respondent's birth certificate. On 4 June 2015 the appellant was granted permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal by Judge Ransley, a Judge of the First Tier Tribunal who concluded upon the grounds of appeal tendered by the appellant that owing to the doubts that Judge Quinn expressed about the genuineness of the respondent's birth certificate, his decision to allow the appeal was arguably in material error of law.

The Judge carried out a full analysis of the DNA test report and concluded that although "the DNA evidence was not as clear and complete as it could have been but applying the balance of probabilities test I make the finding that Shezlu and Appellant are half siblings and share the same father Mosrab Ali." This finding was perfectly legitimate and was open to the Judge Quinn to make.

The argument that an application for Certificate of Entitlement cannot succeed unless it is accompanied by a "genuine" birth certificate has no basis in law or indeed common sense. It is a mandatory requirement that an application should be accompanied by a full birth certificate of the applicant. There is no mention of the word "genuine". In this case a birth certificate was submitted with the application setting out the requisite particulars. The Judge did not rule out that document as not being non compliant with the requirement.

I should like to note that there are countries whose nationals are not able to produce birth certificates because the local requirements do not require such documents to be made. There are countries where registration of births and deaths is by comparative analysis a recent phenomenon and is not enforced as diligently as one would expect in the western world. Bangladesh is or certainly was one of such countries.