A case filed by a scientist of Indian origin alleging he was rejected for a post because he was Asian has been dismissed.

Prim Singh, 45, a molecular biologist, claimed that he was deliberately overlooked for the post of director of the world famous Babraham Institute based in Cambridge.

The Bristol Employment Tribunal dismissed his case, ruling that he 'never had any real chance' of success as he did not meet any of the six criteria in the job description.

Singh had sought one million pounds in damages from the institute.

He had also alleged that Ian Wilmut - the celebrated creator of Dolly the Sheep - had bullied him, was racist and had stolen his scientific ideas while the two worked at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh.

Singh alleged that he was the victim of a witch-hunt and was forced out of a 40,000-pounds-a-year job at Roslin.

He then applied for a job at the Babraham Institute but said because of his previous complaints against Roslin he was deliberately overlooked for the job despite being better qualified than several other candidates.

Monica Winstanley, a spokesperson for the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council that is fighting the case for the Babraham Institute, said: 'We strongly refute the allegations made by Singh.

'Our recruitment procedures are conducted by experienced professionals who adhere to nationally recognised guidelines and we stand by them.'

Singh, a father of three, was born in India, and graduated with a first-class honours degree in physiology biochemistry from Reading University. He gained a PhD from Cambridge University for his research in genetics and worked for the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council for 18 years, five of which were at Roslin.

Singh now works for Germany's Leibniz Institute.

Several Indians in overcrowded British jails

Britain's prisons are teeming with foreign nationals, many of them from India and Pakistan, and the government may release some inmates to release the pressure, according to Home Secretary Charles Clarke.

The country is grappling with the problem of overcrowding in prisons, and latest figures show that there are 10,000 foreign nationals in the prisons.

There has been a dramatic rise in the number of foreigners jailed by British courts in recent years and the government is considering freeing some of the offenders to release the pressure.

Clarke told the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee that the number of foreign nationals in prisons had risen seven times the rate for British citizens.

There are inmates of more than 160 different nationalities behind bars, with Jamaicans representing the largest group.

There are also large numbers from Nigeria, Turkey, India, Pakistan and Ireland. Foreigners represent about one in eight of the prison population, which reached a record 77,774 last week, according to The Independent.

Clarke told the committee that it was 'very close' to reaching the maximum capacity for jails in England and Wales of 78,147.

He said: 'Twelve to 13 percent of the occupants of British prisons at the moment are foreign nationals. That is a very large number indeed.

'From 2000 to 2005, the number of British nationals in British prisons increased by 11 percent while the number of foreign nationals increased by 75 percent over that period. If the foreign nationals had increased at the same rate as the British we would have about 3,500 fewer prisoners than we do today.'

Clarke admitted that ministers were considering extending the home detention curfew scheme, under which offenders are released early on electronic tags, to ease the pressure on the system.

The Home Secretary also said the emergency use of police cells to hold prisoners was possible.