Qajar v Australian Human Rights Commission

In the Federal Court of Australia, Justice Jarrett considered an application by the Australian Human Rights Commission (the Commission) for summary dismissal of proceedings brought by Mr Qajar. Mr Qajar had filed an application seeking judicial review of the Commission's decision to dismiss his complaint of unlawful discrimination. The Commission argued that Mr Qajar's application for judicial review had no reasonable prospect of success and should therefore be summarily dismissed.

The central legal issue before the Court was whether Mr Qajar's application for judicial review of the Commission's decision to dismiss his complaint of unlawful discrimination had reasonable prospects of success. This required the Court to assess the merits of Mr Qajar's grounds for judicial review against the standard for summary dismissal, which requires demonstrating that the claim is bound to fail.

Justice Jarrett reasoned that the grounds of Mr Qajar's application for judicial review were based on a misunderstanding of the Commission's role and the nature of the judicial review process. The Court found that the Commission had acted within its statutory powers and that the decision to dismiss the complaint was not vitiated by any error of law. Consequently, the Court concluded that Mr Qajar's application for judicial review lacked reasonable prospects of success.

The Court ordered that the application for judicial review be dismissed.