Rolls Building
Mr Justice Sales, sitting in London's Rolls Building, will decide if the charity tribunal was right not to allow the charity to change its objects
The Upper Tribunal will today hear the latest appeal by the charity Catholic Care against a ruling preventing it from excluding gay couples from using its adoption service.
It is the fourth in a series of appeals by Catholic Care (Diocese of Leeds) since the Charity Commission refused its request in November 2008 to change its charitable objects in order to restrict access to its adoption service to heterosexual couples.
The charity has argued that if it did not discriminate in this way it would lose its funding from the Catholic Church and would have to close the service.
Today’s appeal, which will be heard by Mr Justice Sales at the Rolls Building in London, is against the charity tribunal’s rejection of its request to change its objects in April 2011. The hearing is scheduled to last two days.
The charity wants to make use of an exemption for charities under section 193 of the Equality Act 2010, which allows discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation provided it is "a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim".
The Upper Tribunal allowed the appeal in August last year.
