THE HIGH COURT in Belfast is expected to rule today on a legal challenge to Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Bryant’s decision to ban an Orange Order parade along the Garvaghy Road.

Bryant intervened on 9 October following a 13-day stand-off between Orangemen and residents of the mainly nationalist road in Portadown, Co Armagh.

A member of the Orange Order sought a judicial review of his intervention, with the challenge also concerning the role of PSNI chief Constable Jon Boutcher.

At hearings last week, Judge David Scoffield heard a challenge to the “legality of the decision-making route” used to ban the procession.

Counsel for Bryant argued that he could have taken “no other decision” than to halt the march.

The Parades Commission had approved an early-morning, silent procession by 35 Orange Order members along the Garvaghy Road on 27 September, without accompanying bands.

It was the first approval for the disputed route in almost 30 years, but large crowds of residents and supporters gathered in opposition and the parade did not proceed.

Police assessed that officers could not safely escort the procession along the road while the crowds remained.

Orangemen stayed on Drumcree Hill for almost two weeks, making repeated approaches to the police line in an attempt to complete the route.

Bryant hosted talks between the two sides at Hillsborough Castle, but efforts to reach an agreed resolution were unsuccessful.

Announcing the ban, he said Boutcher had advised that facilitating the procession would require a major intervention carrying “an unacceptable risk of serious injury, disorder and a wider contagion effect across Northern Ireland”.

The court also heard last week that PSNI intelligence indicated dissident republicans might have mounted gun attacks on police if officers had cleared a route for the parade.

Bryant’s intervention was welcomed by residents and nationalist politicians but criticised by unionist representatives.

At the time, Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition representative Breandán Mac Cionnaith described stopping the parade as the only “sensible, reasonable and logical outcome”.

DUP leader Gavin Robinson said the decision had “fundamentally undermined” the rule of law.

Additional reporting from PA