The immigration cap brought out by the UK government has been invalidated by the High Court in UK. The cap was specifically implemented for applicants coming from the non-EU nations. These mainly catered to skilled workers from India among other countries. As per the High Court, the said limit is unlawful without the parliament scrutinizing it. The court has also stated that the present temporary cap which was brought about in June has also been brought about unlawfully.
The cap was brought about by Theresa May, the UK Home Secretary as a form of an interim measure before the final cap is implemented in April 2011. This interim cap has been challenged on the basis of the fact that parliamentary scrutiny has been side-stepped by the ministers and went on with the announcement of the temporary cap.
The English Community Care Association and the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) had brought about this legal challenge which limited the numbers to 24, 100 till April 2011. This challenge was further carried on by the judges in the court.
According to the Home Office, this is not a threat to their immigration policy. However, as per the Opposition Labor, this policy is in chaos especially after the ruling brought out by the court.
As of now, the present ruling by the court has annulled the temporary cap which is being followed now. This means that this cap is no longer applicable which implies that as of now, there are no hard and fast rules pertaining to immigration to be followed.
It was concluded by Justice Burton and Lord Justice Sullivan in the ruling that appropriate parliamentary procedures were not followed by the Home Secretary before executing the immigration cap. The parliamentary procedures involve a vote in the parliament.
According to the judges, when it comes to the intentions of the Secretary of State, there was no secret made of it. It was evident that there was an attempt to evade the provisions for the Parliamentary scrutiny. These provisions were brought about under the 1971 Immigration Act. Thus, her endeavor was completely unlawful.
The above makes it clear that there are limits on the Tier 1 and tier 2 applicants as of now. However, the Home Office is still devoted to reduce the total numbers of migrants walking into the nation from the non-EU area.
