''Mandla v Dowell-Lee'' UKHL 7
is a United Kingdom law">982
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.

Background

A Sikh boy was refused entry to Park Grove School,

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

by the headmaster because his father refused to make him stop wearing a

dastar A dastār is an item of headwear associated with Sikhism and Sikh culture. The word is loaned from Persian through Punjabi. In Persian, the word ''dastār'' can refer to any kind of turban and replaced the original word for turban, ''dolband'' ...

and cut his hair. The boy went to another school, but the father lodged a complaint with the

Commission for Racial Equality In-Commission or commissioning may refer to: Business and contracting * Commission (remuneration), a form of payment to an agent for services rendered ** Commission (art), the purchase or the creation of a piece of art most often on behalf of anot ...

(CRE), which brought the case. Derry Irvine, a future

Lord Chancellor The Lord Chancellor, formally titled Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom. The lord chancellor is the minister of justice for England and Wales and the highest-ra ...

, appeared for the CRE.

Judgment

Court of Appeal

The CRE lost in the

Court of Appeal An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to Hearing (law), hear a Legal case, case upon appeal from a trial court or other ...

. Lord Denning, M. R. held the following: He held that Sikhs were not a

racial Race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society. The term came into common usage during the 16th century, when it was used to refer to groups of va ...

or ethnic group.

House of Lords

The CRE won the Appeal to the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

, where

Lord Fraser of Tullybelton Walter Ian Reid Fraser, Baron Fraser of Tullybelton, (3 February 1911 – 17 February 1989) was a British judge. Life and career Ian Fraser was born in Glasgow on 3 February 1911, the eldest child of Alexander Reid Fraser, a Glasgow fur mer ...

held the following. He went on to approve the test set out by Richardson, J. in the County Court. They held that Sikhs were a

or ethnic group.

Significance

The outcome of this case has been that it has led to a legal definition of the term ethno-religious.

Notes