Gargan v Ellis as Director of Public Prosecutions Tasmania

The applicant, Mr. Gargan, sought leave to appeal against a decision of the Full Court of the Supreme Court of Tasmania. The Director of Public Prosecutions for Tasmania was the respondent. The dispute concerned the interpretation of section 10(1)(b) of the *Evidence Act 1910* (Tas), which deals with the admissibility of evidence obtained in contravention of a law.

The central legal issue before the High Court was whether the Supreme Court of Tasmania had erred in its interpretation of section 10(1)(b) of the *Evidence Act 1910* (Tas). Specifically, the court had to determine whether evidence obtained in contravention of a law, which was not a law of Tasmania, could nonetheless be admitted under that section.

The High Court held that section 10(1)(b) of the *Evidence Act 1910* (Tas) applied to contraventions of any law, not just Tasmanian laws. Their Honours reasoned that the language of the section was broad and did not contain any express limitation to laws of Tasmania. Therefore, evidence obtained in contravention of a Commonwealth law, as was the case here, could be admitted under section 10(1)(b) if the court was satisfied that the desirability of admitting the evidence outweighed the undesirability of admitting evidence obtained in contravention of the law. The appeal was dismissed.