R (Singh) v HMRC - Alaric Watson
In R (Singh) v HMRC, Alaric Watson appeared for the Trustee in Bankruptcy (joined as an Interested Party).
There is nothing peculiar in the nature of the right to bring judicial review that protected that right from the ordinary application of the principles established by the Court of Appeal in the case of Heath v Tang [1993] 1 WLR 1421. Where, therefore, a bankrupt sought permission to challenge by way of judicial review a decision by HMRC, taken after the date of the bankruptcy order, on the amount for which they intended to prove in his bankruptcy, the bankrupt had no locus to mount such a challenge, any more than he had the right of appeal against any such decision: his remedy lay within the Bankruptcy Court under the provisions of the Insolvency Act and Rules (primarily s 303 and IR 6.105(2)). In so far as the decision of HHJ Purle QC in Arnold v Williams [2008] BPIR 247 suggested otherwise, it was readily distinguishable. Mr Justice Warren, as President of the Upper Tribunal, Finance and Tax Chamber, so held in dismissing the application of the bankrupt, Mr Baljinder Singh, for permission to bring judicial review proceedings.
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