Education—Pupil—Religious discrimination

Court of Appeal, Civil Division, Sedley, Smith and Rimer LJJ,
25 Jun 2009

The requirement that if a pupil is to qualify for admission to a school his mother has to be Jewish, whether by descent or by conversion, is a test of ethnicity which contravenes the Race Relations Act 1976 (RRA 1976)
Dinah Rose QC and Helen Mountfield (instructed by Bindman & Partners) for E. Peter Oldham (instructed by Stone King LLP) for the Governing Body of JFS and the Admissions Panel of JFS. Tom Lindon QC and Mr Dan Squires (instructed by the Treasury Solicitor) for the secretary of state. Clive Lewis QC (instructed by the Treasury Solicitor) for the Schools’ Adjudicator and the Admissions Panel of JFS. Lord Pannick QC and Ben Jaffey (instructed by Farrer & Co) for the United Synagogue.  The remaining interested parties did not appear and were not represented. David Wolfe