RN (Pakistan) v Secretary of State for the Home Department

This is the application of Mr Raja Jahanzaib Nasir, who applies for permission to appeal from the decision of Upper Tribunal Judge Warr dated 19 August 2014. There is also an application for an extension of time. The matter was listed for 30 minutes at 10am this morning. It is now 10:25. The appellant has not appeared. The usher has called for him outside the court and there was no return.

This is not the first occasion that the matter has been listed for hearing. It was listed for hearing on 19 November and on 4 November Mr Nasir wrote to the court asking for an adjournment because he had bad flu and a high fever. The court granted an adjournment and I made the following direction, which appears in a letter from the Court Service dated 9 November 2015 to Mr Nasir:

“I am reluctant for this matter to be adjourned beyond the minimum time necessary for the appellant to get rid of his flu because the appellant has already lodged his skeleton argument and the decision sought to be appealed is more than one year old. Accordingly I adjourn to come back into the list or before me on the first available date after 2 weeks from today. A medical certificate signed by a medical practitioner must be lodged 48 hours before the date and time of the hearing if there is to be any further request to adjourn. Satisfactory proof of transmission must be made available to the court if the appellant sends any further communication to the court as this request dated 4 November was apparently not duly received.”

So the court did adjourn the matter and it was listed for hearing today, and on 11 November 2015 the Civil Appeals Office sent Mr Nasir at his address in Burnley a letter detailing the date of this adjourned hearing and telling him that he had to check the Cause List for the actual courtroom number and time.

In those circumstances, I conclude that Mr Nasir has had sufficient notice of today’s hearing and, as he has failed to appear, I dismiss the application.