Haider v Minister for IMMIGATION

Syed Zeshan Haider applied to the Federal Circuit Court for reinstatement of his judicial review application, which had been dismissed by a Registrar for non-attendance at a First Court Date. Mr Haider sought to judicially review a decision of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, which had found it lacked jurisdiction to review a decision by the Minister for Immigration to refuse Mr Haider a Temporary Business Entry (class UC) Temporary Work (Skilled) (subclass 457) Visa. The Tribunal's jurisdictional issue arose from an initial application for review lodged by Mr Haider's employer, Namitha Nakul Pty Ltd, rather than Mr Haider himself, and a subsequent purported amendment lodged outside the prescribed time limit.

The court was required to determine whether Mr Haider had established grounds for the reinstatement of his dismissed judicial review application. This involved considering whether the Registrar's dismissal for non-attendance was appropriate and, more broadly, whether Mr Haider had demonstrated arguable prospects of success in his underlying judicial review claim. The core of the underlying claim concerned the Tribunal's finding that it lacked jurisdiction due to the initial application being made by the employer and the subsequent attempt to amend the application being out of time.

Baird J reasoned that the applicant had not demonstrated that he had substantial compliance with the requirements of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal form, nor that he had arguable prospects of success in the judicial review. The Tribunal had correctly identified that the initial application for review was lodged by the employer, not the visa applicant, and that the subsequent attempt to amend the application to substitute Mr Haider as the applicant was made outside the statutory time limit. Consequently, the Tribunal lacked jurisdiction to entertain the review. Given these findings, the court concluded that there were no grounds to reinstate the dismissed application.

The court ordered that the name of the First Respondent be amended, dismissed the application for reinstatement, and ordered the Applicant to pay the First Respondent's costs fixed at $1,500.