Ghaderi v Director of Public Prosecutions (NSW)

The applicant, Ghaderi, sought judicial review of a decision by the Director of Public Prosecutions (NSW) to refuse an application to transfer appeals from the District Court at Parramatta to the District Court at Sydney CBD. The appeals themselves arose from convictions in the Local Court. The Court of Appeal of New South Wales considered the exceptional nature of its jurisdiction in judicial review.

The primary legal issue before the Court of Appeal was whether the Director's refusal to transfer the appeals constituted a jurisdictional error. This required the Court to determine if the Director had acted outside the scope of their legal authority or failed to exercise a power conferred upon them by law.

The Court of Appeal found that the Director's decision was not a jurisdictional error. The Court reasoned that the Director had a discretion to refuse the transfer application, and that discretion had been exercised lawfully. The applicant had not demonstrated that the Director had failed to consider relevant matters or taken into account irrelevant considerations, nor had the Director acted in bad faith or in a way that was so unreasonable that it could only be explained by the presence of an error of law. The Court emphasised that the jurisdiction for judicial review was exceptional and would not be lightly invoked to interfere with administrative decisions that were otherwise within power.

Consequently, the summons filed by the applicant on 5 February 2018 was dismissed.