Withers was defeated in a High Court case regarding their client’s right to marry her fiancé in a Church of Scientology chapel.
Louisa Hodkin and the Church of Scientology RE College were advised by Paul Hewitt in a case regarding Miss Hodkin’s right to marry her Scientologist fiancé in a Church of Scientology chapel. The case was against the Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, who deemed Church of Scientology chapels were not meeting places for religious worship meaning that Miss Hodkin and her fiancé would not be able to get married in one.
Lord Lester QC and Naina Patel of Blackstone Chambers were instructed by Withers for the claimants and James Strachan of 4-5 Gray’s Inn Square was instructed for the defendant by the Treasury Solicitor.
Hodkin’s lawyers had argued that she was being unlawfully discriminated against on the basis of her religion. But Mr Justice Ouseley, sitting in the High Court, dismissed the challenge.
Referring to legal precedent from the Court of Appeal case of Segerdal, which ruled that a Scientology chapel was not a place for religious worship, Ouseley concluded that the 1970 case was “binding”.
But the judge left the door open for further legal action. He added: “Forty years on from Segerdal, the Court of Appeal may find the route at least to reconsider its decision in Segerdal, with the fuller material now available.”
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