A SENIOR Army medic who claims he was subjected to race discrimination during a posting to Cyprus took his test case for compensation to London's Appeal Court yesterday.

Top judges were told Lieutenant Colonel Surinder Saggar's case will have implications for thousands of ex-patriate workers who suffer race, sex or disability discrimination while working outside the UK.

The consultant anaesthetist, from Richmond, North Yorkshire, who has served in the Royal Army Medical Corps since 1982, took the Ministry of Defence to an employment tribunal.

He claimed he had suffered race discrimination at the hands of colleagues while he was posted to the Princess Mary Hospital, in Akrotiri, Cyprus, between September 1998 and December the following year.

But his case was dismissed by a tribunal, sitting at Thornaby, Stockton, in October 2001, on grounds that it had no legal power to hear the case as Lt Col Saggar - who is of Indian descent - was working "wholly or mainly" outside Great Britain at the time.

The tribunal's decision was last year backed at an employment appeal tribunal.

But that ruling is now under scrutiny at the appeal court where Lt Col Saggar, in his 60s, who is based at Catterick Garrison, in North Yorkshire, is being represented by QC Robin Allen.

Mr Allen said the case was of general public importance because the term of the Race Relations Act, on which the tribunals based their decisions, is almost exactly mirrored in the Sex Discrimination Act and the Disability Discrimination Act.

He said the tribunals' interpretation of the statute had produced arbitrary and obvious unfair consequences for Lt Col Saggar who had, apart from the Cyprus posting, spent most of his services career working in Britain.

He said the tribunals' ruling might be seen as an opportunity by employers to send employees abroad before discriminating against them.

Thomas Linden, for the MoD, said that all the events about which Lt Col Saggar complained had taken place in Cyprus and the tribunals' view of the law was clearly correct.

Lord Justice Mummery, Lord Justice Tuckey and Lord Justice Clarke reserved their decision on Lt Col Saggar's appeal until a later date.