Panth and Anor v Minister For Home Affairs and Anor (No.2)

This matter concerned an application for judicial review of a decision by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) to refuse the applicants, Panth and Anor, Skilled (Provisional) (Class VC) visas under section 65 of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth). The applicants contended that they had not received notice of the AAT hearing.

The central legal issue before the court was whether the applicants had been properly notified of the AAT hearing, particularly in circumstances where they were represented by a migration agent. The court was required to determine if the AAT's finding that notice was sent to the migration agent was sufficient to establish that the applicants had received notice, and whether this was a rebuttable presumption.

The court found that notice of the hearing had been sent to the applicants' migration agent. Applying the principles of administrative law, the court held that once it was satisfied that the notice was sent to the migration agent, it must be taken to have been received by the applicants. The court determined that this was not a rebuttable presumption, meaning the applicants could not successfully argue they had not received notice simply because they claimed not to have seen it. The migration agent's lack of assistance to the court in this regard did not alter this conclusion.

Consequently, the application for judicial review was dismissed. The applicants were also ordered to pay the first respondent's costs in the sum of $7,467.