Mandla v Dowell-Lee

Mandla v Dowell-Lee
A sikh wearing patka (right)
Court	House of Lords
Decided	24 March 1983
Citation(s)	[1983] UKHL 7, [1983] 2 AC 548
Case history
Prior action(s)	[1983] QB 1
Court membership
Judge(s) sitting	Lord Fraser of Tullybelton, Lord Edmund-Davies, Lord Roskill, Lord Brandon of Oakbrook and Lord Templeman
Keywords
Race discrimination, Sikh, protected characteristic, ethnicity

Mandla v Dowell-Lee [1983] UKHL 7 is a United Kingdom law case on racial discrimination. It held that Sikhs are to be considered an ethnic group for the purposes of the Race Relations Act 1976.

A Sikh boy was refused entry to Park Grove School, Birmingham by the headmaster, because his father refused to make him stop wearing a dastar and cut his hair. The boy went to another school, but the father lodged a complaint with the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), which brought the case. Derry Irvine, a future Lord Chancellor, appeared for the CRE.

The CRE lost in the Court of Appeal.Lord Denning, M. R. held the following:

You must remember that it is perfectly lawful to discriminate against groups of people to whom you object - so long as they are not a racial group. You can discriminate against the Moonies or the Skinheads or any other group which you dislike or to which you take objection. No matter whether your objection to them is reasonable or unreasonable, you can discriminate against them - without being in breach of the law.’

He held that Sikhs were not a racial or ethnic group.

The CRE won the Appeal to the House of Lords, where Lord Fraser of Tullybelton held the following.

He went on to approve the test set out by Richardson, J. in the County Court.