SAJI v Minister for Immigration

This matter came before Judge Jarrett of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia concerning an application for review of a decision made by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. The applicant, SAJI, sought to challenge the Tribunal's finding that she did not satisfy the requirements of clause 5A405(1)(c) of the Migration Regulations 1994, which related to demonstrating sufficient regular income to accumulate the level of funding provided. The core of the dispute revolved around the weight the Tribunal gave to a loan approval from the State Bank of Travancore as evidence of the applicant's regular income.

The primary legal issue before the Court was whether the Tribunal's decision that the applicant had not provided sufficient evidence of regular income was so unreasonable as to constitute a jurisdictional error. The applicant contended that the Tribunal was required to act reasonably in its assessment and that its conclusion, particularly regarding the loan approval, was unreasonable in the sense described in *Minister for Immigration and Citizenship v SZMDS*. Specifically, the applicant argued that a bank's approval of a loan necessarily implied the borrower's capacity to service and repay it, and therefore the Tribunal should have inferred sufficient regular income from the loan approval.

Judge Jarrett reasoned that while the loan approval might afford some evidence of the applicant's income at the time of the application, the Tribunal's task was distinct from that of the bank. The bank's assessment focused on the future likelihood of loan repayment, which might not necessarily depend on the applicant's personal income. The Court noted that the applicant's argument conflated the bank's lending criteria with the Tribunal's evidentiary requirements under the Regulations. Consequently, the Court found that the Tribunal's decision was not unreasonable in the *SZMDS* sense, as the bank's assessment and the Tribunal's assessment involved different considerations and purposes.