MIAC v SZLFX & Anor; MIAC v SZKTI & Anor

The High Court of Australia considered appeals from decisions of the Federal Court of Australia concerning the interpretation of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth) and its application to certain non-citizens. The applicants, MIAC, sought to challenge decisions made by the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship to refuse to revoke mandatory detention orders under s 197C of the *Migration Act*. The respondents, SZLFX and SZKTI, were the non-citizens affected by these decisions.

The central legal issue before the High Court was whether the Minister's decision not to revoke a mandatory detention order under s 197C was amenable to judicial review. Specifically, the Court had to determine if the Minister's power to revoke detention was a "decision" for the purposes of the *Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act 1977* (Cth) (ADJR Act), and if so, whether the grounds for review were limited to those specified in s 197C(3) or if broader grounds under the ADJR Act were available.

The High Court, by majority, held that the Minister's power under s 197C to revoke a detention order was not a "decision" to which the ADJR Act applied. The Court reasoned that s 197C(3) provided the exclusive framework for challenging the lawfulness of detention, limiting the grounds for review to whether the non-citizen continued to be an unlawful non-citizen and whether the Minister was satisfied that the non-citizen should remain in detention. The Court found that the Minister's decision not to revoke detention was an exercise of a power that was not a "decision" in the administrative law sense, and therefore, the broader grounds of review available under the ADJR Act were not applicable.

The appeals were allowed, and the orders of the Federal Court were set aside.