British HC slams rules restricting immigrant marriages

London, Apr 10 (UNI) The British High Court has ruled for tough government rules to prevent sham marriages instead of discriminating against immigrants.

In a significant defeat for the government, Mr Justice Silber said the rules which say that people born outside the EU and some bordering European nations who have only six months' permission to be in the UK must seek special permission from the Home Office to marry, irrespective of the status of their partner, were unreasonable and breached human rights.

The application for permission of marriage costs 135 pounds and only 76 specially selected register offices can deal with the proposed marriage. If the Home Secretary refused permission to marry, there is no right of appeal, other than to apply to the High Court. The only exemption is for people who marry in the Church of England.

Mr Justice Silber said that he found the regime to be incompatible with human rights law because people who wanted to marry within the Church of England were not subject to the same scrutiny as those choosing another type of wedding. In a summary of his judgement, he said that the case focused on whether the government's right to control immigration and fight illegality had resulted in laws that unfairly breached the rights of those coming under the spotlight.

People seeking to marry within other faiths, principally other branches of Christianity, Hinduism, Islam or Sikhism, were not given a similar benefit of the doubt where ministers of religion were content the proposed wedding was genuine. Ruling that the measures breached human rights on grounds of nationality and religion, Mr Justice Silber said there was "no adequate justification" for the marriage regulations to be used to control immigration.

Lawyers for the home secretary had argued that the exemption for the Church of England was valid because there was no evidence of any sham marriage rackets attempting to use Anglican ceremonies.

Campaigners said the law was discriminatory because it effectively labelled some immigrants as fraudsters. The judge gave leave to appeal - but the Home Office has partially suspended the rules while it considers its case.

Mr Justice Silber's "declaration of incompatibility" against the rules is the most severe defeat the courts can inflict on the government on human rights grounds. It means ministers must return the law to parliament or take other steps to make sure it is fair.

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