Lord Fairley, President of the Employment Appeal Tribunal, has delivered judgment in Kuwait v Fenniche EA-2024-000294 (19 May 2026).
In March 2024 Kuwait appealed 1,042 days out of time against a judgment of the employment tribunal on state immunity delivered in March 2021 and appealed 376 days out of time against a judgment on liability delivered in January 2023. Kuwait also appealed in time against the ET’s remedies decision in which the claimant was awarded compensation of £551,000 for personal injury caused by discrimination.
Kuwait applied for an extension of time in the immunity and liability appeals. The Registrar applied the normal rules on time limits and refused to extend time.
In allowing Kuwait’s appeal against the Registrar’s order, the EAT applied the recent judgment of the Supreme Court in Saudi Arabia v Costantine [2025] ICR 768 and the EAT’s recent decision in Kuwait v Mohamed [2026] IRLR 309 (both leading cases in which Mohinderpal Sethi K.C. appeared for the foreign states).
Mohinderpal Sethi K.C. appeared for Kuwait, instructed by Jawaid Rehman, Lasya Nair and Rupinderjit Sandhu of Weightmans LLP.
Mohinderpal Sethi K.C. specialises in domestic, international and offshore business protection, employment, partnership and sport litigation and arbitration. He is a Top-Ranked Silk in Chambers (UK and Global) and Legal 500 (UK, EMEA and Caribbean). He is the Commercial Silk of the Year (Legal 500 MENA Awards 2026). For two years in a row, he was the Senior Counsel of the Year (International Employment Lawyer Awards 2023 and 2024). He is also the Employment Silk of the Year (Legal 500 Bar Awards 2023), Civil Lawyer of the Year (Asian Legal Awards 2022) and Barrister of the Year Finalist (The Lawyer Awards 2022). He is a former Chair of the UK’s Employment Law Bar Association and is currently Co-Head of the Middle East Group.
