SHRIVASTAVA v Minister for Immigration

The applicant, Mr. Shrivastava, sought judicial review of a decision made by the Migration Review Tribunal (the Tribunal) which affirmed the refusal of his student visa application. The central dispute concerned allegations that the Tribunal's decision was affected by jurisdictional error due to a denial of procedural fairness.

The court was required to determine whether the Tribunal failed to afford Mr. Shrivastava procedural fairness by not inviting him to "respond to" adverse information notified under section 359AA of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth). Further issues included whether the Tribunal failed to advise Mr. Shrivastava of his right to seek additional time to respond to such information, whether the Tribunal exhibited bias, and whether it failed to conduct an inquiry requested by the applicant.

Justice Cameron found that the Tribunal's obligation under section 359AA was to invite the applicant to "comment on" the adverse information, not necessarily to "respond to" it in a formal sense. The Tribunal had provided Mr. Shrivastava with the adverse information and invited him to comment on it. His Honour held that the Tribunal was not obliged to inform the applicant that he could seek additional time to respond, as this was not a statutory requirement. The allegations of bias and failure to make a requested inquiry were also dismissed.

The application for judicial review was dismissed.