Plaintiff M62 of 2019 v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs & Ors

In this matter before the High Court of Australia, the plaintiff, identified as Plaintiff M62 of 2019, sought judicial review of the decision by an officer of the Department of Home Affairs not to refer the plaintiff's request for ministerial intervention under section 48B of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth) to the Minister. The plaintiff, a citizen of Bangladesh, had previously had his protection visa application refused and subsequent appeals and judicial review proceedings dismissed. He had requested the Minister to exercise the non-compellable power under section 48B to override the restriction on further visa applications imposed by section 48A of the Act.

The central legal issue before the High Court was whether the plaintiff's application for a constitutional or other writ disclosed an arguable basis for relief. This involved determining if the officer's decision not to refer the section 48B request to the Minister was legally flawed, or if the plaintiff's grounds for seeking intervention were themselves arguable in law. The plaintiff's application was based on four grounds, which the Court noted were substantially identical to those raised in numerous previous applications that had been dismissed.

The Court dismissed the plaintiff's application, finding that it did not disclose an arguable basis for the relief sought. The Court referred to its previous decisions in similar matters, stating that the reasons for rejecting those applications applied equally to the present case. The Court emphasised that the power under section 48B is non-compellable and must be exercised by the Minister personally, and that the plaintiff's request had been assessed against the Minister's Guidelines and found not to meet them. Consequently, the application was dismissed with costs pursuant to rule 25.09.1 of the *High Court Rules 2004* (Cth).