Muralidharan v Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs

In Muralidharan v Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs, the Federal Court of Australia considered an appeal against the decision of the Refugee Review Tribunal (the Tribunal) to refuse refugee status to the applicant, a citizen of Sri Lanka. The Court was required to decide whether the Tribunal had adequately provided reasons for its decision, as required by section 166E of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth), and whether the Tribunal had given the applicant's case proper, genuine and realistic consideration on the merits. The Court found that the Tribunal had failed to comply with its statutory duty to give reasons, which constituted an error of law justifying the setting aside of the decision. The Court also found that the Tribunal had not given the applicant's case proper, genuine and realistic consideration on the merits. The appeal was allowed, the orders of the trial judge were set aside, the decision of the Tribunal was set aside, and the matter was remitted for determination according to law by a differently constituted tribunal. The Minister was ordered to pay the applicant's costs of the appeal and of the proceedings before the trial judge.