El Boustani v The Minister administering the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (No 2)

In *El Boustani v The Minister administering the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (No 2)*, the parties were El Boustani and the Minister administering the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979. The dispute concerned an application to correct or vary orders previously made by the court. The matter was heard by Beazley P, Gleeson JA, and Preston CJ of the Land and Environment Court.

The court was required to determine whether it had the power to correct a clerical mistake in a previous order, specifically an incorrect year, and whether it could vary a previous order to set aside only one of the lower court's orders rather than all of them. The court also considered the appropriateness of varying an order that set aside lower court orders that were outside the court's power, and the variation of an order concerning costs with the consent of the parties.

The court applied the slip rule to correct a clerical error in the year of a previous order extending time to appeal. However, the court found that the slip rule was not applicable to vary an order so as to set aside only one of the lower court's orders, as this went beyond correcting a clerical mistake. The court noted an alternative power to vary the order, particularly as the application was made within 14 days of the entry of the order. The court determined it was not appropriate to vary the order setting aside lower court orders that were outside its power. Nevertheless, with the consent of the parties, the court varied the order so as not to set aside the lower court's order relating to costs.

The court made orders correcting Order 1 of its previous orders of 28 February 2014 by changing the year from "2014" to "2013". Furthermore, Order 3 of the court's orders of 28 February 2014 was varied by inserting the words "(except Order 4)" after "the orders".