Nadeem v Minister for Immigration

In *Nadeem v Minister for Immigration*, Driver J of the Federal Court of Australia considered an application for judicial review concerning a decision made by the Minister for Immigration. The applicant, Mr Nadeem, sought to challenge the lawfulness of the Minister's decision to refuse to revoke a mandatory visa cancellation under section 501(3)(c) of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth).

The central legal issue before the Court was whether the Minister, in exercising the power under section 501(3)(c) to refuse to revoke a visa cancellation, was required to afford the applicant procedural fairness. Specifically, the Court had to determine if the Minister's decision-making process, which involved considering information that was not disclosed to the applicant, breached the implied duty of procedural fairness.

Driver J reasoned that the power to refuse to revoke a mandatory visa cancellation under section 501(3)(c) was a power that could affect the rights and legitimate expectations of the visa holder. Consequently, the principles of procedural fairness applied. The Court held that the Minister was obliged to provide the applicant with an opportunity to respond to adverse information that was relevant to the decision to refuse revocation. As the applicant had not been given this opportunity, the Minister's decision was found to be affected by jurisdictional error. The application for judicial review was therefore upheld.