Bangladesh Islamic Centre of NSW Inc v Elzamtar

The Bangladesh Islamic Centre of NSW Inc (the appellant) sought to appeal a decision of the primary judge against Mr Elzamtar (the respondent). The core of the dispute concerned the appellant's application to adduce further evidence on appeal, pursuant to section 75A of the *Supreme Court Act 1970* (NSW). The appellant contended that "special grounds" existed to permit the introduction of this new evidence.

The central legal issue before the Court of Appeal was whether the appellant had established the "special grounds" required by section 75A of the *Supreme Court Act 1970* (NSW) to admit further evidence on appeal. This involved assessing whether the evidence could have been obtained with reasonable diligence for use at the trial and whether there was a significant prospect that the outcome at first instance would have differed had the evidence been presented then.

The Court of Appeal found that the appellant had failed to establish the necessary "special grounds." Their Honours reasoned that the further evidence sought to be adduced could have been obtained with reasonable diligence prior to the original trial. Furthermore, the Court concluded that even if this evidence had been led at first instance, there was no significant prospect that the outcome of the proceedings would have been different. Consequently, the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal. The Court granted leave to the appellant to file its Amended Notice of Appeal dated 29 June 2021, but the appeal itself was dismissed with costs.