R (on the application of Baiai and others v Sec State for Home Dpt &Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants and others

Facts

The House of Lords granted a Declaration of Incompatability with respect to discrimination between civil and Anglican marriages. Their Lordships agreed with the Court of Appeal and the High Court beow that the legislative scheme requiring prior government consent for a marriage solemnised on the authority of a superintendant registrar's certificate under the Marriage Act 1949 was discriminatory, as it did not apply to marriages conducted according to the rites of the Church of England on the authority of ecclesiastical preliminaries. Accordingly, the scheme was disproportionate and violated the 'right to marry' under Art 12 of the Human Rights Act 1998.