[2024] UKUT 00363 (IAC)

Javed (Marriage (Scotland) Act 1977, s20)

Heard at Edinburgh

THE IMMIGRATION ACTS

Promulgated on 29 February 2024

Before

MR C M G OCKELTON, VICE PRESIDENT

UPPER TRIBUNAL JUDGE MACLEMAN

Between

ZEESHAN JAVED

Appellant

and

THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT

Respondent

Representation:

For the Appellant: Mr Shabbir, instructed by K & A Solicitors.

For the Respondent: Mr T. Lindsay, Senior Home Office Presenting Officer.

(1) If the parties’ marriage was not previously valid or recognised in Scotland, then, following the ceremony, they are validly married for the purposes of Scots law from the date of the ceremony. 

(2) If the parties’ marriage was previously valid and entitled to recognition in Scots law, their status as married persons is unchanged by the ceremony, but the documentation arising from the ceremony enables them to establish that status from a date no later than that of the s 20 ceremony. 

(3) It is in the nature of the circumstances covered by s 20 that there may still be doubt about whether (1) or (2) applies; and nothing in the s 20 process assists in resolving that doubt.

DECISION AND REASONS