Patheja v Minister for Immigration

The applicant, Mr. Patheja, sought judicial review of a decision by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) which found it lacked jurisdiction to review the refusal of his work visa application by a delegate of the Minister for Immigration. The delegate's refusal was based on the absence of an approved sponsorship nomination.

The central legal issue before the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia was whether the Tribunal had erred in law by determining it had no jurisdiction to consider Mr. Patheja's application for review. This involved assessing whether the Tribunal was entitled to make a preliminary finding on its own jurisdiction before proceeding to the merits of the application.

Judge A Kelly reasoned that the Tribunal was indeed entitled to determine whether its jurisdiction was engaged. The applicant had provided a medical certificate leading to an adjournment of a show cause hearing, after which he filed a notice of discontinuance. However, leave to discontinue was not granted. The Court found that the applicant's grounds for review had no reasonable prospect of success, and therefore, there was no jurisdictional error on the part of the Tribunal. The application for judicial review was dismissed.