High Court Orders Government to Pay Indemnity Costs After Ministry Repeatedly Missed Litigation Deadlines in Afghan Relocation Test Cases

Mr Justice Chamberlain, the judge in charge of the Administrative Court, has penalised the Government Legal Department with indemnity costs (the highest cost award a court can make, intended to punish unreasonable conduct) after the defendant secretary of state repeatedly missed procedural deadlines and applied for extensions only after they had already expired. The underlying claims are three test cases brought by Afghan nationals challenging decisions by the defence secretary relating to their relocation to the UK. By July 2026, the judge recorded there had been 'very many applications by the defendant for extensions of time to file evidence and other documents, many of them made after expiry of the relevant deadline.' The defendant also failed to meet a late September deadline set by Mr Justice Mould to file and serve a skeleton argument, amended detailed grounds, and disclosure, and only applied for an extension four days after that deadline passed. Chamberlain J described this as 'a textbook example of bad litigation practice.' The judge ordered the government to pay the claimants' costs of various hearings caused by the failures, plus the costs attributable to the adjournment of the substantive hearing that had been fixed for 13 October, all on the indemnity basis. Separately, whatever the outcome of the claims, the government will be unable to recover the costs of preparing documents filed late in breach of court orders. Chamberlain J was pointed in his criticism: 'It is difficult to avoid the impression that the secretary of state and his representatives in this case came to regard procedural directions as optional.' Counsel for the defendant argued the team had been working hard with limited resources; the judge said he placed 'very little weight' on that submission given the absence of supporting evidence. The ruling follows an practice statement issued in March 2026 warning that too many extension applications were being made at the last minute, apparently as a fait accompli.