Singh v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs

In the case of Singh v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, the applicant sought judicial review of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal’s (AAT) decision which dismissed his application for review of a delegate's decision to refuse his visa application. The applicant argued that the Tribunal erred in finding that it lacked jurisdiction to review his application for being out of time. The case was brought under section 476 of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth). The primary legal issue was whether the Tribunal was correct in determining that it lacked jurisdiction to review the applicant's application on the basis that it was lodged outside the prescribed timeframe.

The court examined the three-tiered framework for assessing whether a Tribunal was correct in finding it lacked jurisdiction when an application for review is filed out of time. This framework involves considering how the applicant was notified of the delegate's decision, the content and clarity of the notification, and whether the application for review was indeed filed late. The court found that the applicant was notified of the decision via email on 16 November 2017, and that the notification was clear and complied with statutory requirements. However, the applicant claimed that he was not properly notified and only became aware of the decision after the prescribed time period for lodging an application for review had lapsed. Despite this, the court confirmed that the application for review was indeed filed late, as the last day for lodging was 7 December 2017.

The court concluded that the Tribunal was correct in determining that it lacked jurisdiction to review the application on the basis that it was filed out of time. The applicant's claims of unawareness and late notification did not alter the fact that the application was not lodged within the prescribed period. Therefore, the application for judicial review was dismissed.