Eiu17 v Minister for Immigration

The applicant, Eiu17, sought judicial review of a decision by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (the Tribunal) which refused to grant him a protection visa. Eiu17 claimed he feared harm in Malaysia. The Tribunal had proceeded to make its decision in the applicant's absence, as he did not attend the hearing.

The central legal issue before the Court was whether the Tribunal's exercise of its discretion to proceed with the hearing and make a decision in the absence of the applicant constituted a jurisdictional error. This involved considering whether the Tribunal had adequate material before it to support the grant of the visa and whether its decision to proceed without the applicant's attendance was an improper exercise of its discretion.

Judge Driver found that the Tribunal had not committed jurisdictional error. The Court reasoned that the Tribunal was entitled to proceed in the applicant's absence if it considered it appropriate to do so, particularly where the material before it was insufficient to establish the grounds for the protection visa. The Tribunal's decision to proceed without the applicant was therefore not an error of law.