Hermawan v Minister for Home Affairs

Hermawan applied to the Federal Court of Australia for judicial review of a decision by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) which affirmed the refusal of his student visa applications. The Minister for Home Affairs was the respondent. The core of the dispute concerned the applicant's failure to be enrolled in a course of study at the time of his visa applications, which was a prerequisite for the grant of the visas.

The primary legal issue before the Court was whether the AAT had committed a jurisdictional error in its review of the delegate's decision to refuse the student visas. Specifically, the Court was required to determine if the applicant had an arguable case that the AAT's interlocutory dismissal of his application to make submissions in response to a show cause notice constituted a jurisdictional error. The applicant contended that this dismissal prevented him from adequately presenting his case to the AAT.

Justice Driver found that the applicant had not established an arguable case of jurisdictional error. His Honour reasoned that the AAT was entitled to dismiss the applicant's show cause application if it considered that there was no arguable case for setting aside the delegate's decision. The applicant's failure to be enrolled in a course of study was a fundamental and insurmountable obstacle to the grant of a student visa, and the AAT was not obliged to allow further submissions on this point if it was clear that the visa criteria could not be met. The Court therefore concluded that the AAT's actions did not amount to a jurisdictional error.

The application for judicial review was dismissed.