Begum v Secretary of State for the Home Department
2014
ADMINISTRATIVE COURT
UK
CORAM
- HHJ DAVID COOKE
Areas of Law
- Administrative Law
- Immigration Law
2014
ADMINISTRATIVE COURT
UK
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The Claimant challenged the refusal to issue her a British passport as a British citizen by descent. The court determined that the Overseas Passport Management Unit (OPMU) applied an incorrect standard of proof – beyond reasonable doubt instead of the balance of probabilities. Additionally, the decision to disregard the DNA evidence was irrational. The court ruled in favor of the Claimant, stating that the standard of proof for citizenship must be the civil standard and that DNA evidence should be given evidential weight.
Judgment
HHJ David Cooke :
Introduction
The Claimant challenges the refusal to issue her a British passport, to which she claims to be entitled as a British citizen by descent. At the conclusion of the hearing, I informed the parties that the challenge would be allowed, for reasons to be stated later in writing. These are those reasons.
Formally, the decision challenged is that made by way of review on 23 May 2013 by the Overseas Passport Management Unit (OPMU), which is based in London and has a letterheading showing the logos of both the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and the Home Office Identity & Passport Service. In substance however the challenge is to earlier decisions of the British High Commission in Islamabad, Pakistan, to which the Claimant had made her passport application. No objection has been taken to naming the Secretary of State for the Home Department as defendant.
Factual background and decision challenged
The Claimant was born on 14 November 1988 in Pakistan. She claims to be the daughter of Moghul Khan, who was born 1 March 1940 in Pakistan but (as is accepted) was at the date of her birth a British Citizen. Moghul Khan died on 17 November 1989. It is common ground that if she is Moghul Khan's daughter, she too is a British Citizen, by virtue of s2(1) British Nationality Act 1981 , which provides as follows:
“2 Acquisition by descent
(1) A person born outside the United Kingdom … after commencement shall be a British citizen if at the time of the birth his father or mother—
(a) is a British citizen otherwise than by descent…”
The Claimant's mother is Shah Jehan Begum, who is a Pakistani national, so that the Claimant is not entitled by descent on her maternal side.
It is also common ground that although passports are issued by virtue of the Royal Prerogative, if the Claimant is a British Citizen there are no grounds upon which she would be refused a passport in the exercise of that Prerogative. The Claimant accepts that the onus was on her to prove her entitlement to citizenship, by virtue of s 3(8) Immigration Act 1971 . There is an issue however as to the standard of proof to be applied in relation to her passport application, to which I shall return.
The Claimant relies on the fact that her younger sister Zakia Begum, born on 15 December 1989, has been accepted as a British Citizen by virtue of descent from Moghul Khan and issued with a British passport accordingly. Her contention is that she has sufficiently shown by doc