CAT/C/23/D/63/1997 page 9 The Committee’s decision on admissibility 6.1 At its twentieth session the Committee considered the question of the admissibility of the communication. It ascertained that the same matter had not been, and was not being, examined under another procedure of international investigation or settlement. Insofar as the exhaustion of domestic remedies is concerned, the Committee noted that no decision regarding the application to the administrative court requesting the suspension of the deportation measure which might have been taken against the author had been reached when the measure was enforced. Furthermore, an appeal against the ministerial deportation order issued in respect of the complainant on 13 January 1997 would not have been effective or even possible, since it would not have had a suspensive effect and the deportation measure was enforced immediately following notification thereof, leaving the person concerned no time to seek a remedy. The Committee therefore found that article 22, paragraph 5 (b), did not preclude it from declaring the communication admissible. 6.2 Accordingly, the Committee decided on 19 May 1998 that the communication was admissible. Observations by the State party on the Committee’s decision declaring the communication admissible 7.1 In a reply dated 4 January 1999 the State party provides information concerning the question of the exhaustion of domestic remedies. It maintains that the author’s application to the Administrative Court of Limoges cannot be considered to be relevant, since it does not concern the decision challenged before the Committee. That application, filed on 16 December 1996 in the court registry, was directed not against the deportation measure in dispute, which had not yet been taken, but against a deportation measure that “might” have been taken. That wording alone was sufficient to render the application by Mr. Arkauz inadmissible, as the practice of the administrative courts consistently requires complainants to challenge current and existing decisions. Therefore, the fact that no ruling had been made on the application by 13 January 1997, when the deportation order was issued, does not appear to be decisive in the present case. The judgement was reached two days later, i.e. less than a month after registration of the application. The rendering of this court decision was obviously not a matter of the greatest urgency, since it related not to a current but to a possible measure. 7.2 The author failed to enter an appeal against the ministerial order of 13 January 1997 calling for his deportation from French territory and against the decision specifying Spain as the country of destination. An application for a stay of execution under article L.10 of the Code of Administrative Courts and Administrative Courts of Appeal, a possibility of which the complainant was clearly not unaware, was incontestably the appropriate and available remedy. It was not, however, used. The State party therefore submits that the Committee should declare the communication inadmissible under rule 110, paragraph 6, of its rules of procedure. 7.3 The State party argues that the execution of the deportation measure in question in no way stemmed from a desire on the part of the Government to obviate the right of recourse available to the person concerned, both at national and international level. More specifically as