Bhatt v Minister for Home Affairs

Bhatt (the applicant) sought judicial review of a decision by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) to dismiss their application for reinstatement of proceedings concerning a Student (Temporary) (Class TU) visa. The AAT had dismissed the reinstatement application due to the applicant's non-appearance. The applicant then brought an application in the Federal Court of Australia, seeking to challenge the AAT's decision.

The primary legal issue before the Court was whether the applicant had reasonable prospects of success in their substantive application before the AAT, which was a prerequisite for the Court to grant leave to proceed with the judicial review. The applicant had advanced eighteen grounds of review, but the Court considered whether these grounds were sufficiently particularised to demonstrate a reasonable prospect of success.

Justice Blake found that the majority of the applicant's grounds of review were unparticularised and lacked the necessary specificity to establish a reasonable prospect of success. The Court applied the principle that for an application for judicial review to succeed, the applicant must demonstrate that there is a real chance of success on the merits of the case. Without particularised grounds, this threshold could not be met.

Consequently, the Court dismissed the applicant's application in a case, finding that there were no reasonable prospects of success in the substantive application before the AAT.