SZDPV v MIMIA

[2005] HCATrans 471

[2005] HCATrans 471

IN THE HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA

Office of the Registry
  Sydney  No S161 of 2005

B e t w e e n -

SZDPV

Applicant

and

MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION AND MULTICULTURAL AND INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS

Respondent

Application for special leave to appeal

Publication of reasons and pronouncement of orders

GUMMOW J
KIRBY J

TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

AT CANBERRA ON MONDAY, 1 AUGUST 2005, AT 3.10 PM

Copyright in the High Court of Australia

GUMMOW J:   The applicant is a citizen of Bangladesh who arrived in Australia on 30 July 1989.  He claims to be entitled to refugee status by reason of a well-founded fear of political persecution.

On 15 October 1998 the Refugee Review Tribunal affirmed the decision of a delegate of the Minister to refuse to grant the applicant a protection visa.  The Tribunal rejected one aspect of the applicant’s factual claims, namely his claim that a warrant for his arrest had been issued at the instigation of his political adversaries, as “inherently improbable” and lacking supporting documentation.  Other aspects of the applicant’s claims were also disbelieved and the Tribunal treated purported documentary evidence as lacking credibility.  The Tribunal was unable to be satisfied on the material before it that the applicant had a well-founded fear of persecution should he return to Bangladesh.

The applicant sought judicial review of the Tribunal’s decision in the Federal Magistrates Court.  That Court dismissed the application as being well outside the statutory time limits, having been lodged some five and a half years after the Tribunal’s decision, and, in any case, revealing no jurisdictional error on the part of the Tribunal.  An appeal to the Federal Court was dismissed by Emmett J.

We have considered the applicant’s written case and the decisions of the Tribunal, the Federal Magistrates Court and the Federal Court.  There would be no prospect of success in any appeal to this Court from the Federal Court. Accordingly, special leave to appeal is refused.

Pursuant to r 41.10.5 we direct the Registrar to draw up, sign and seal an order dismissing the application for special leave.  I publish the disposition signed by Kirby J and myself.

AT 3.12 PM THE MATTER WAS CONCLUDED