Ferdinands v Allaway, National Duty Registrar (No 1)

In this case, the applicant sought judicial review of a decision by the National Duty Registrar to reject documents for filing. The Federal Court was tasked with determining whether the applicant should be granted leave to serve subpoenas on non-parties as part of the judicial review process. The application for leave to subpoena was made after the Court had reserved judgment on the judicial review itself.

The primary legal issue was whether the Court should allow the subpoenas, which were intended to gather evidence and documents from non-parties, despite these not being directly related to the core issue of document filing. Additionally, the applicant requested that 18 questions of law be referred to the Full Court for determination. The Court had to decide whether such leave could be granted under the circumstances and if the referral of questions to the Full Court was appropriate.

The Court held that the subpoenas were not relevant to the judicial review of the Registrar's decision to refuse the filing of documents and, therefore, should not be allowed. The remaining orders sought were either not within the Court's power or were irrelevant to the proceedings. Consequently, the Court dismissed the amended interlocutory application and declined to refer the 18 questions of law to the Full Court.

The final orders of the Court were to dismiss the amended interlocutory application filed on 1 November 2022, with the entry of orders governed by Rule 39.32 of the Federal Court Rules 2011.