Plaintiff M46 of 2013 and Minister For Immigration and Citizenship and the Officer in Charge, Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation and Secretary, Department of Immigration and Citizenship

The plaintiff, identified as M46 of 2013, sought judicial review of decisions made by the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship and the Officer in Charge of the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation, concerning the plaintiff's detention. The Secretary of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship was also a respondent. The matter came before Hayne J of the High Court of Australia.

The central legal issue before the Court was whether the plaintiff's continued detention was lawful under Australian law, specifically in light of the High Court's previous decision in *Plaintiff S298/2013 v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection* [2013] HCA 45. This involved an examination of the scope of the executive power to detain non-citizens and the constitutional limitations on such detention.

Hayne J applied the principles established in *Plaintiff S298/2013*, which affirmed that the executive power to detain non-citizens, derived from the constitutional power to make laws with respect to aliens, is limited to circumstances where the detention is for the purpose of removing the non-citizen from Australia. His Honour found that the detention of the plaintiff was not for the purpose of effecting removal, but rather for other reasons that did not fall within the constitutional grant of power. Consequently, the detention was held to be unlawful.

The Court ordered that the plaintiff be released from detention.