Singh v Minister for Immigration

In this matter before Emmett J of the Federal Court of Australia, the applicant, Mr Singh, sought judicial review of a decision made by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT). The AAT had determined that it lacked jurisdiction to review a decision by a delegate of the Minister for Immigration to refuse Mr Singh's visa application. Mr Singh contended that the AAT's decision was affected by jurisdictional error.

The legal issues before the Court were whether the AAT erred in finding that it had no jurisdiction to review the delegate's decision, specifically concerning whether Mr Singh's application for review was filed outside the mandatory time limit. Further, the Court considered whether the AAT failed to comply with section 360 of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth) and whether the AAT's decision was affected by bias. A related question was whether Mr Singh had been properly notified of the delegate's decision to refuse his application.

Emmett J reasoned that the AAT was entitled to find that Mr Singh had been notified of the delegate's decision on 17 April 2015, as a letter dated 8 April 2015, advising of the refusal, was sent by registered post to the address provided by Mr Singh for correspondence. Although the letter was returned to the Department marked "Unclaimed," the AAT noted a file note of a telephone call on 27 May 2015 where Mr Singh confirmed the address and was verbally advised of the refusal letter. The AAT also found that no substantive reason was provided for the mail being returned unclaimed. Consequently, the AAT correctly determined that the mandatory 21-day period for lodging an application for review expired on 8 May 2015, and Mr Singh's application, filed on 8 August 2016, was lodged significantly out of time. The Court found no jurisdictional error on the part of the AAT.

The application was dismissed.