B and C, Ex parte- Re Ruddock

This matter concerned an application by B and C for an order of certiorari to quash a decision of the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, the Honourable Philip Ruddock MP, made on 16 March 2001. The applicants sought to challenge the Minister's decision to refuse to grant them a protection visa.

The central legal issue before Hayne J was whether the Minister's decision was vitiated by a failure to afford the applicants procedural fairness. Specifically, the applicants contended that they were not given adequate notice of the adverse information that the Minister proposed to rely upon in refusing their visa application, nor were they given a reasonable opportunity to respond to that information.

Hayne J found that the Minister's delegate had failed to provide the applicants with adequate notice of the adverse information that was to be taken into account in assessing their protection visa application. The delegate had relied on information that had not been disclosed to the applicants, and consequently, they had not been afforded a reasonable opportunity to respond to it. This failure constituted a breach of the duty to afford procedural fairness.

The application for certiorari was granted, and the Minister's decision of 16 March 2001 was quashed.