Muhammad Abdul Hakim v Registrar of Approved Driving Instructors

The Appellant, Muhammad Abdul Hakim, lodged their appeal using the GRC1 form at the Tribunal on 15 December 2024. Their appeal was incomplete as they did not provide a copy of the decision they were seeking to challenge.

By Directions and Email issued on 8^th January 2025, the Appellant was required to provide a copy of the decision they are seeking to challenge within 28 days. They did not comply.

By Directions and Email issued on 7^th March 2025, the Appellant was again required to provide a copy of the decision they are seeking to challenge, by no later than 21^st March 2025. These directions, specifically stated “The Appellant is asked to note that failure to comply with the direction above could lead to the Tribunal striking out this appeal for failure to comply pursuant to Rule 8(3)(a) of the Tribunal Procedure (First-tier Tribunal) (General Regulatory Chamber) Rules 2009 without further direction.

Under Rule 8(3), the Tribunal may strike out a case where:

I find that the test under Rule 8(3)(a) is met: in that the Appellant has failed to comply with a direction which stated that failure to comply could lead to the striking out of the proceedings. The Appeal is struck out for this reason.

I further conclude that the test under Rule 8(3)(b) is met: in that the Appellant has failed to co-operate with the Tribunal (by failing to provide a copy of the decision notice) to such an extent that the Tribunal cannot deal with the proceedings fairly or justly. The Appeal is also struck out for this reason.

The overriding objective in Rule 2 of the Procedure Rules requires the Tribunal to deal with cases fairly and justly. For completeness, I add that I find it is fair and just to strike out the proceedings. The Appellant has now had over 5 months to abide by this very simply direction. They have failed to do so. They have not provided any explanation for the failure and have not requested further time.