British Railways Board v Natarajan: EAT 1979

Arnold J considered when it was appropriate for the company’s confidential material to be disclosed to employee claimants in tribunal proceedings: ‘We think that before deciding whether an examination is necessary, the judge or chairman of the tribunal . . must decide whether there is any prima facie prospect of relevance of the confidential material to an issue which arises in the litigation; put another way whether it is reasonable to expect that there is any real likelihood of such relevance emerging from the examination. If there is not, we do not think that the exercise of examination is necessary or should take place’.

Judges:

Arnold J

Citations:

[1979] ICR 326

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

ApprovedScience Research Council v Nasse; BL Cars Ltd (formerly Leyland Cars) v Voias HL 1-Nov-1979
Recent statutes had given redress to anyone suffering unlawful discrimination on account of race sex or trade union activities. An employee sought discovery of documents from his employer which might reveal such discrimination.
Held: The court . .
CitedA v B and Another EAT 18-Feb-1997
The respondents appealed against a finding of unlawful sex discrimination. The claimant had been seeking psychotherapy, and the defendant sought discovery of her therapy history.
Held: The notes may have been relevant, and an order should have . .
CitedBritish Aerospace plc v Green and Others CA 18-Apr-1995
The employer was to make 530 members of its staff redundant. Each staff member was assessed and scored. The claimants said that the method of selection was unfair, and sought disclosure of the scores of all employees.
Held: It was wrong to . .
CitedAsda Stores Ltd v Thompson, Pullan, and Caller EAT 16-Jun-2003
The appellants had been dismissed after investigations satisfied the employer that the employees had been using illegal drugs. Cross appeals were made in the following misconduct unfair dismissal claim. The employees complained of the use of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Employment

Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.347276