SZBCA v MIMIA

The applicants, SZBCA and MIMIA, brought proceedings before the High Court of Australia concerning the interpretation of certain provisions of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth). The core of the dispute revolved around the lawfulness of decisions made by the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs to refuse to grant visas to the applicants.

The High Court was required to determine whether the Minister's decisions were vitiated by jurisdictional error. Specifically, the Court considered whether the Minister had failed to exercise a non-delegable power, and whether the Minister had failed to consider relevant considerations and taken into account irrelevant considerations when making the decisions.

McHugh and Heydon JJ, in their joint judgment, held that the Minister's power to refuse to grant a visa was a non-delegable power. They reasoned that the statutory language indicated a personal exercise of the power by the Minister. Furthermore, the Court found that the Minister had failed to consider a crucial document that was relevant to the assessment of the applicants' claims, and had also taken into account information that was not before the decision-maker at the time the decision was made. This constituted jurisdictional error.

The High Court ordered that the decisions of the Minister be quashed.