Wasif v The Secretary of State for The Home Department: CA 9 Feb 2016

Wide scope for refusal of JR leave

These two appeals have been listed together because they both raise an issue about the proper approach to be taken in considering whether to certify an application for permission to apply for judicial review as ‘totally without merit’.
Held: The phrase ‘totally without merit’ did not describe the entire range of matters where leave to bring judicial review could be refused. There are also cases in which the claimant has identified a rational argument but where the judge is confident that, even taken at its highest, the claim is wrong, and in such a case it is right to refuse permission if the judge feels able confidently to reject the claimant’s arguments.

Lord Dyson MR, Underhill, Floyd LJJ
[2016] 1 WLR 2793, [2016] Imm AR 585, [2016] EWCA Civ 82, [2016] WLR(D) 81
Bailii, WLRD
England and Wales
Cited by:
AppliedHenry, Regina (on The Application of) v The Bar Standards Board Admn 28-Sep-2016
JR leave refusal – BSB Disciplinary Refusal
The claimant, was a solicitor who had himself been disciplined for misconduct, of disciplinary decisions following findings that his conduct had fallen short of that expected of an ordinary honest individual with his knowledge and experience and . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Judicial Review, Immigration

Leading Case

Updated: 10 November 2021; Ref: scu.559743