Citizenship – British citizen

Citizenship – British citizen, deprivation

The Upper Tribunal should have found that depriving the appellant of his British citizenship would make him stateless, as he had had no right to resume and no realistic prospect of being able to resume Sri Lankan citizenship. Accordingly, the Court of Appeal, Civil Division, allowed the appellant’s appeal and remitted the case the UT to determine whether the Secretary of State’s discretion to deprive the appellant of his British citizenship should be exercised differently.

In 1973, the appellant was born in Sri Lanka. In June 1994, he arrived in the United Kingdom and claimed asylum. In July 1998, the appellant was convicted of conspiracy to defraud and sentenced to two-and-a-half years’ imprisonment. On 12 June 1999, he was recognised as a refugee and granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK. In March 2007, the appellant applied for British citizenship and his application was granted on 11 December 2007.

However, the appellant did not disclose when he applied for British citizenship that, using the name and date of birth of another individual of Sri Lankan origin, he had previously been granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK on 16 October 1999 and then British citizenship on 16 December 2003. The Home Office subsequently discovered those facts and, on 27 May 2015, sent two letters to the appellant. The first letter informed him that the grant of British citizenship made on 16 December 2003 was considered to be a nullity. The second letter gave notice, under s 40(5) of the British Nationality Act 1981 (the BNA 1981), of the respondent Secretary of State’s decision to make an order to deprive the appellant of his British citizenship granted on 11 December 2007 on the ground that, in his application, the appellant had deliberately concealed the fact that he had already obtained a grant of British citizenship using false details.

Source LexisNexis