Cases - R v Runnymede Borough Council, ex parte Sarvan Singh

Record details

Name

R v Runnymede Borough Council, ex parte Sarvan Singh

Date

[1987]

Citation

JPL 283

Keywords

Planning control

Summary

The applicant, a Sikh, engaged in a variety of religious observances at his home involving many visiting Sikhs. The local planning authority served an enforcement notice requiring the religious purposes, other than those incidental to the enjoyment of the dwellinghouse, to cease. A stop notice was also served.

The applicant was concerned that normal Sikh religious activities of prayer meetings and chanting might be prevented, and sought judicial review claiming that the stop notice was invalid or void in that it did not indicate precisely what he was prohibited from doing.

Mr Justice Schiemann, while recognising that the applicant's worries were well founded, said that it was admissible to use wording in both enforcement and stop notices that incorporated matters of fact and degree. The applicant is then left with making a judgment on how to behave. If it is the wrong judgment, he may be punished by the magistrates. Alternatively, he might sail so carefully that he was being deprived of something which he would be entitled to do. Despite this, the notices were valid.