CVV20 v Minister for Immigration

The applicant, CVV20, sought judicial review of a decision by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) concerning an application for a Protection visa. The Minister for Immigration was the respondent. The core of the dispute revolved around allegations of apprehended bias on the part of the Tribunal.

The central legal issue before the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia was whether the AAT had made a jurisdictional error by exhibiting apprehended bias in its consideration of CVV20's amended application for a Protection visa. This required the Court to assess whether a reasonable apprehension of bias could be formed by a fair-minded lay observer given the circumstances of the Tribunal's conduct.

Judge Street found that no jurisdictional error had been made out. The Court reasoned that the applicant had failed to establish a sufficient basis for a reasonable apprehension of bias. Consequently, the amended application for a Protection visa, as considered by the Tribunal, was dismissed.