Sohal v Minister for Immigration

In *Sohal v Minister for Immigration*, the applicant, Mr Sohal, sought judicial review of a decision by the Minister for Immigration to refuse to grant him a visa. The dispute concerned the lawfulness of the Minister's decision, which was made under the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth). The matter came before Judge Whelan of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia.

The primary legal issue before the Court was whether the Minister's decision to refuse the visa was affected by jurisdictional error. Specifically, the Court was required to consider whether the delegate of the Minister had failed to take into account a relevant consideration or had taken into account an irrelevant consideration when assessing Mr Sohal's application.

Judge Whelan found that the delegate had indeed taken into account an irrelevant consideration, namely, a previous visa refusal that was not relevant to the current application. This failure to properly consider the relevant criteria amounted to a jurisdictional error. The Court applied the principles established in administrative law concerning the duty of a decision-maker to consider all relevant matters and to disregard irrelevant ones.

Consequently, the Court quashed the Minister's decision and remitted the matter to the Minister for redetermination according to law.