EXTRACT
FRon
Quan Bank Devizij
22-587
1
RV Sofs for it Home Deft forti GURNEET SINGH seebe
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
discretion in relation to an application for asylum as a
refugee lie exclusively within the jurisdiction of the Secretary
of State subject only to a Court's power of review."
The fact that the immigration officer has such a limited
role and that normally the responsibility for making decisions.
on applications for asylum is that of the Home Office underlines
the importance of the decisions. It also acknowledges that
frequently decisions involve points of difficulty which are not
suitable for determination by an immigration officer who will
have limited information available at the port of entry. It is
the importance of the decision which also influences the
approach of the Courts on judicial review. In the same case
in the House of Lords both Lord Bridge and Lord Templeman, while
confining the role of the Courts to one of review, emphasised
that the importance of the decision to the applicant would
influence the way the Court would apply its power of judicial
review. In the passage of his speech which follows the passage
to which we have referred already, Lord Bridge said:
"Within those limitations the court must, I think, be entitled to subject an administrative decision to the more rigorous examination, to ensure that it is in no way flawed, according to the gravity of the issue which the decision determines. The most fundamental human right is the individual right to life and when an adminis- trative decision under challenge is said to be one which
may put the applicant's life at risk, the basis of the decision must surely call for the most anxious scrutiny".
When the individual cases of the present applicants come
to be considered, this salutary reminder of the approach the
Courts should adopt will be borne in mind.
NOTIFICATION OF THE DECISION ON AN APPLICATION FOR ASYLUM
In the course of argument it became apparent that hitherto
it has not been the practice of the Home Office to give written
notification of the decision on an application for asylum
11.