KOHAR v Minister for Immigration

The applicant, Kohar, sought judicial review of a decision by the Migration Review Tribunal (MRT) concerning her Subclass 573 Higher Education Sector Visa. The core of the dispute revolved around whether medical evidence presented by the applicant sufficiently demonstrated that she was unable to maintain her enrolment in her course of study, a requirement for the visa. The matter came before Judge Street of the Federal Circuit Court of Australia.

The primary legal issue before the Court was whether the MRT had committed a jurisdictional error in its assessment of the medical evidence. Specifically, the Court was required to determine if the MRT's conclusion that the applicant had not established she was unable to maintain enrolment was so unreasonable that it constituted a jurisdictional error, thereby vitiating the MRT's decision.

Judge Street found that the MRT had properly considered the medical evidence before it. The Tribunal had weighed the evidence and concluded that it did not establish, to the required standard, that the applicant was unable to maintain enrolment. The Court held that the MRT's assessment, while perhaps not to the applicant's satisfaction, did not reach the threshold of unreasonableness required to establish a jurisdictional error. The application for judicial review was therefore summarily dismissed.