not take account of a statement unless the members were satisfied, beyond reasonable doubt, that it had not been obtained by torture. 133. On this approach there is a stark disjunction between what the Home Secretary can properly do and what SIAC can properly do. It is, of course, true that, because of public interest immunity or section 17(1) of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, a party to a litigation may not be able to lead evidence of a matter which it was nevertheless legitimate for him to take into account. Such analogies cast little light, however, on a situation where the disjunction arises between sections in the same Act. 134. Parliament gave jurisdiction in proceedings under sections 25 and 26 of the 2001 Act to SIAC, which had been established by the Special Immigration Appeals Act 1997 in order to meet the criticisms of the European Court of Human Rights in Chahal v United Kingdom (1996) 23 EHRR 413. SIAC is tailor-made to deal with sensitive cases where intelligence material has to be considered. One member of the court will have had experience in handling such material. Section 18(1)(e) of the 2000 Act disapplies section 17(1) and so allows the Commission to consider the content of intercepts. Rule 44(2) of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Procedure) Rules 2003 allows the Commission to receive evidence in documentary or any other form, while rule 44(3) allows it to receive evidence that would not be admissible in a court of law. By giving jurisdiction to SIAC, Parliament must have intended that the appeal or review should be considered by a body that was not bound by the ordinary rules of evidence and that was, in general, free to consider all the material that the Home Secretary had taken into account when issuing his certificate. Not surprisingly, therefore, in section 29(1) Parliament provided that any action of the Secretary of State taken wholly or partly in reliance on a section 21 certificate could be questioned only in legal proceedings under section 25 or 26 or under section 2 of the 1997 Act – proceedings in other courts would not be satisfactory since they would not be able to consider the same range of material. Of course, after the certificate was issued, material might often come to hand which strengthened, or even superseded, the material on which the Home Secretary had relied. Conversely, new evidence, or criticism of the existing evidence during the hearing, might undermine the basis for the Home Secretary’s decision. SIAC can take account of all that. What is not immediately clear, to me at least, is that Parliament would have contemplated that the specialist tribunal would have to shut its eyes to statements which the Home Secretary was entitled, or perhaps even bound, to take into account. Why should the Secretary of State be entitled to use such a -73-