Brar (Migration)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered the case of Mr. Brar, an applicant from India whose student visa was cancelled by the Department of Home Affairs. The dispute centred on whether Mr. Brar had breached a condition of his visa, specifically condition 8202, which requires a student visa holder to maintain enrolment in a registered course and achieve satisfactory course progress and attendance.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was to determine if Mr. Brar had complied with condition 8202 of his visa. This condition, as relevant to his Subclass 573 visa, mandated that he be enrolled in a registered course and not be certified by his education provider as failing to achieve satisfactory course progress or attendance. If a breach was found, the Tribunal then had to consider whether to exercise its discretion to cancel the visa under section 116(1) of the Migration Act 1958.

The Tribunal found that Mr. Brar had breached condition 8202(2) because his enrolment in a Certificate III in Commercial Cookery was cancelled on 29 February 2016 due to unsatisfactory course progress, and he remained unenrolled until his visa was cancelled on 21 December 2016. Mr. Brar did not dispute this lack of enrolment. Having established a breach, the Tribunal considered its discretion to cancel the visa, noting that no specific matters were mandated for consideration by the Act or Regulations. The Tribunal had regard to the circumstances of the case, including Mr. Brar's submissions, and ultimately concluded that the visa should be cancelled. The Tribunal affirmed the Department's decision to cancel Mr. Brar's Class TU visa.