England and Wales Court of Appeal (Civil Division) Decisions

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL (CIVIL DIVISION)
ON APPEAL FROM THE EMPLOYMENT APPEAL TRIBUNAL

		The Royal Courts of Justice The Strand London WC2A Tuesday 6 February 2001

Tuesday 6 February 2001

1. LORD JUSTICE MUMMERY: This is an application for permission to appeal, made by Miss Ahmed in person. This morning she has supplied to the court a letter of 5 February 2001 from the Commission for Racial Equality She relies on that in support of an application to adjourn this case for two months.
2. The letter is addressed to the Civil Appeals Office from the Principal Litigation Officer of the CRE. It reads:

"Re: Ms Ahmed -v- London Borough of Hackney and Another

Hearing 6th February 2001

As I believe you are aware, the CRE are assisting Ms Ahmed in this matter but not representing her. We are in the process of seeking Counsel's opinion as to the merits of the matter but have not yet received an opinion.

This is a 'bias appeal' and Ms Ahmed will be in difficulties arguing the matter unrepresented. In the circumstances we seek an adjournment of tomorrow's hearing in order that we may obtain an opinion as to the merits of the matter and grant Ms Ahmed representation should this be meritorious.

We apologize to the court for all inconvenience caused."

3. In the light of that, Miss Ahmed applies for the adjournment.
4. I have some hesitation in granting the adjournment for these reasons. First, this case has been going on for a long time. It is undesirable that there should be further unnecessary delays in its final determination. The application to the Employment Tribunal was made by Miss Ahmed against the London Borough of Hackney and her line manager, Mr G Moore, as long ago as 1996. She made complaints of race discrimination, victimisation and unfair dismissal. There was a hearing of about 11 days in the Employment Tribunal in the autumn of 1998. The extended reasons were sent to the parties on 23 November 1998. The Employment Tribunal found in Miss Ahmed's favour on her claim for unfair dismissal, but dismissed her claims for racial discrimination and victimisation.
5. She appealed against the racial discrimination decision. On 20 October 1999 the Employment Appeal Tribunal, after a preliminary hearing, dismissed the appeal on the ground that there was no arguable point of law. It must, of course, be borne in mind that any appeal from the Employment Appeal Tribunal to the Appeal Tribunal or to this court is restricted to points of law.
6. Miss Ahmed then made an application for permission to appeal to this court. In my view, Miss Ahmed has had a considerable length of time in which to arrange for representation. Adjournment would cause further delay, which would be undesirable unless really necessary.
7. Secondly, there is no indication in the letter from the CRE as to when it hopes to obtain counsel's opinion on the merits of Miss Ahmed's appeal and how long it would be before it decided whether to represent her or not. Miss Ahmed said that an adjournment of one to two months would be needed. I am reluctant to adjourn this matter for any period longer than six weeks. The Commission for Racial Equality should be informed as soon as possible that this matter will come back to this court at or soon after the expiration of six weeks for a decision on the application.
8. The main reason that I grant the application is that, having read the papers, I can easily see the difficulties which Miss Ahmed would have in representing herself. She was represented in the Employment Tribunal hearings and at the Employment Appeal Tribunal. She informed me that the CRE represented her at the remedy hearing of her successful unfair dismissal claim in the spring of 2000. I am satisfied that there is a real involvement of the CRE in Miss Ahmed's case. I think it would be of benefit to Miss Ahmed, and helpful to this court, to have the assistance of a representative in determining whether Miss Ahmed's appeal does or does not have a real prospect of success on a point of law. For these reasons, I regard this as a special case in which it is appropriate to grant an adjournment. An adjournment of two months would be too long. I will adjourn it for six weeks, and direct that it comes back as soon as possible after then. I will ask Miss Ahmed to inform the Commission for Racial Equality, in the person of Lisa Connerty, that we have adjourned it for six weeks and it will come back towards the end of March.
ORDER: Application adjourned