Concession - withdrawal - adjudicator finding for asylum seeker on credibility and allowing appeal on basis of presenting officer's concession - no jurisdiction to revisit concession

Davoodipanah v Secretary of State for the Home Department; CA (Lord Justice Kennedy, Lord Justice Clarke and Lord Justice Jacob): 29 January 2004

An Iranian woman appealed against the refusal of the secretary of state to grant her asylum as a refugee under the United Nations Convention, relating to the Status of Refugees 1951, on the ground that she had committed adultery in Iran for which the penalty was death by stoning.

The presenting officer for the secretary of state conceded before the adjudicator that if the asylum seeker succeeded in persuading the adjudicator that her account of events was accurate, she would be such a refugee, leaving the question of credibility of the asylum seeker's account to be proved.

The adjudicator, accepting the asylum seeker's account, allowed the appeal on the basis of the concession.

The Immigration Appeal Tribunal allowed the home secretary's appeal, holding that on evidence the adjudicator was not entitled to reach the conclusion that the appellant was at risk at the hands of the authorities or her husband in Iran.

On the asylum seeker's appeal, the secretary of state contended that he was entitled to withdraw the concession.

Raza Husain (instructed by TRP Solicitors, Birmingham) for the asylum seeker; Gerald Clarke (instructed by Treasury Solicitor) for the secretary of state.

Held, allowing the appeal, that the appeal tribunal had no jurisdiction to revisit the concession clearly made to the adjudicator who had relied on it in reaching the determination; and that where the secretary of state sought to argue to the prejudice of the asylum seeker that he was entitled to withdraw his concession, the appropriate forum to raise that question was the immigration appeal tribunal and not the Court of Appeal.