[2025] UKUT 00089 (IAC)

R (on the application of EK and Others) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (Rule 17 Withdrawal)

Field House,

Breams Buildings

London, EC4A 1WR

Hearing date: 09/01/2025

Promulgated: 29/01/2025

Before:

UPPER TRIBUNAL JUDGE MANDALIA

and

UPPER TRIBUNAL JUDGE HOFFMAN

Between:

THE KING

on the application of

EK and Others

(ANONYMITY DIRECTION MADE)

Applicants

- and -

Secretary of State for the Home Department

Respondent

-and-

Kent County Council

Interested Party

Michelle Knorr and Agata Patyna (instructed by Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants) for the applicants

Sir James Eadie KC, Jack Anderson, Paul Skinner and Alexander Laing (instructed by Government Legal Department) for the respondent

Hugh Southey KC (instructed by Bevan Brittan Solicitors) for the Interested Party by written submissions

Withdrawal of a case

1. Rule 17(2) of The Tribunal Procedure (Upper Tribunal) Rules 2008 requires the Tribunal to consent to the withdrawal by a party of its case or any part of it. Ordinarily the Tribunal will have little difficulty in reaching the conclusion that it should consent to the withdrawal where there is nothing to be gained by the case proceeding when notice of withdrawal of the case or any part of it is given. That might be described as the ‘default position’.

2. It is not however inconsistent with the rules and the purpose of the rules for the Tribunal to refuse consent if it considers it appropriate in all the circumstances.  An abuse of the Tribunal’s process is a powerful factor for refusing consent to withdraw but given the breadth of the discretion in the Tribunal Rules it would be wrong to treat abuse of process as either a necessary or an exclusive criterion.

J U D G M E N T