Plaintiff S10/2011 v. Minister for Immigration and Citizenship and Anor

Catchwords

Citizenship and migration — Migration — Ministerial discretion — Procedural fairness — Section 417 of Migration Act 1958 (Cth) ("Act") empowers first defendant ("Minister") to substitute decision of Refugee Review Tribunal ("RRT") made under s 415 of Act with another decision more favourable to an applicant, if Minister thinks it is "in the public interest to do so" — Section 48B of Act empowers Minister to determine that s 48A of Act does not apply to prevent application for protection visa made by non-citizen, if Minister thinks it is "in the public interest to do so" — Plaintiff applied for Ministerial intervention pursuant to ss 48B and 417 of Act — In October 2010, Minister's delegate informed plaintiff that Minister had decided not to exercise power under s 417 of Act ("the s 417 decision), and plaintiff's s 48B application had been assessed against Minister's Guidelines but was not referred to Minister ("the s 48B decision") — Whether Minister and or second defendant through his officers failed to accord procedural fairness to plaintiff in the s 48B decision and the s 417 decision by taking into consideration certain matters without providing plaintiff with opportunity to know about or comment on those matters — Whether plaintiff had legitimate expectation that information provided by him in respect of his applications would be considered in assessing whether he fell within Guidelines — Whether Minister and or second defendant through his officers failed to apply Minister's Guidelines correctly by taking into account irrelevant considerations or failing to take into account relevant considerations — Whether jurisdictional error occurred irrespective of privative clause in s 474(2) of Act.

Short Particulars