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

For indefinite leave to remain under paragraph 289A of the Immigration Rules, an applicant must establish a subsisting relationship at the beginning of the relevant period and permanent breakdown caused by domestic violence. A dowry dispute does not itself establish that causal link. An appellate court will not interfere with reasoned factual findings absent an arguable error of law or a realistic prospect of success.

The applicant appealed against the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal’s dismissal of her challenge to refusal of indefinite leave to remain as a victim of domestic violence. The Tribunal accepted that the relationship had subsisted when she entered the United Kingdom but found that the marriage broke down because of disagreement about dowry, not domestic violence. The issues were whether the Tribunal had erred in its approach to causation and credibility, and whether it had erred under articles 3 and 8 of the Convention.

1. Application refused. There was no arguable error of law and no realistic prospect of success.
2. Per Lord Justice Pill, the Tribunal had carefully considered the evidence and was entitled to reject the applicant’s account of violence. Arguments about dowry did not themselves demonstrate domestic violence. Its consideration of articles 3 and 8 disclosed no error of law.
3. Lord Justice Sedley agreed in the result but gave different reasoning. He considered that unexplained rejection of apparently credible evidence might have justified permission if credibility were decisive. However, on the applicant’s own account, the relationship had already broken down and the violence followed the breakdown. Domestic violence therefore had not caused the permanent breakdown required by the Immigration Rules.
4. The order was: application refused.

• Court of Appeal (Civil Division): Permission to appeal refused from the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal decision promulgated on 30 April 2007.
• Asylum and Immigration Tribunal: Appeal dismissed on immigration and human-rights grounds.