EAC18 v Minister for Immigration

The applicant, EAC18, sought judicial review of a decision by the Immigration Assessment Authority (IAA) to refuse their application for a protection visa. The applicant claimed to fear harm in Sri Lanka, but the delegate who initially considered the application disbelieved parts of their account and found other claimed fears to be not well-founded. The applicant alleged numerous errors in the IAA's review process.

The central legal issue before Judge Driver was whether the IAA's review of the delegate's decision was vitiated by jurisdictional error, specifically arising from the failure of the Secretary to provide the IAA with a record of an interview with the applicant. This interview had been taken into account by the delegate in reaching their original decision.

Judge Driver found that the failure to provide the record of interview to the IAA constituted a jurisdictional error. The court reasoned that the IAA's statutory duty to conduct a review required it to have access to all relevant material considered by the delegate. Without the interview record, the IAA could not properly assess the delegate's findings or conduct a comprehensive review, thereby disabling its review function and rendering its decision invalid. The court concluded that jurisdictional error had been established.