A PAKISTANI MAN who wants to marry his French girlfriend, and who has a wedding date set for early next month, has been granted an injunction against the minister for justice restraining his deportation to Pakistan.

Barrister Paul O’Shea, counsel for Saim Shaheen Khan, of North Strand Road, Dublin, told Mr Justice Denis McDonald in the High Court today Wednesday that the minister had issued a deportation order against Mr Khan following his divorce from a Portugese EU citizen just two months ago.

Mr O’Shea, who appeared with Brian Burns of Burns Kelly Corrigan Solicitors, said the Minister was alleging that Mr Khan’s 2014 marriage to the Portugese national had been a “marriage of convenience” and had issued the deportation order on 21 June last only a fortnight after his divorce had gone through.

Khan and his girlfriend, Ms Gaelle Sauron, were granted leave to judicially review the ministerial order together with an interim injunction restraining his deportation until further details of the case are placed before the High Court on 7 October, by which time the couple expect to be married.

Judge McDonald granted the minister leave to apply to the court to have the injunction removed on giving the couple’s legal team 24 hour notice of such an application.

Mr O’Shea said Mr Khan had arrived in Ireland in October 2012 with a student visa and had studied at Grafton College, Dublin. Three years later he had been granted residency pursuant to EU Treaty rights following his marriage to Ms Maria Dulcelina Tavares.

He had separated from his wife in early 2016 and obtained a divorce from her on 7 June 2019.  His residency permission had been revoked by letter from the minister in November 2017.

Judge McDonald heard that Khan had subsequently made unsuccessful applications for residency on the basis he was in a de facto relationship with Ms Sauron who has been living in Ireland since April 2016.

Ms Sauron was in court today for the application but Mr O’Shea said Mr Khan was at the Garda National Immigration Bureau where he had to sign on. Mr O’Shea said Mr Khan was in imminent danger of deportation.

Judge McDonald heard that the couple had been in a committed and intimate relationship since April 2016 and deportation of Mr Khan would visit irremediable damage on them and disrupt their marriage plans.

Khan, in an affidavit to the court, said he and Gaelle had an appointment with the Registrar of Marriages and they should know in the next couple of weeks in they could marry and whether there would be any objections.

Mr Burns, his solicitor, had applied for a residence card for him and had sought an undertaking from the minister not to deport him until that application had been dealt with.  No undertaking had been forthcoming.

Judge McDonald, granting leave to challenge the Minister’s order of deportation and granting an injunction restraining Khan’s imminent deportation, adjourned the proceedings until 7 October.