SZJPG & Anor v Minister for Immigration and Citizenship

[2008] HCASL 179

SZJPG & ANOR
v
MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION AND CITIZENSHIP & ANOR
[2008] HCASL 179
S588/2007

1. The applicants, citizens of India, are husband and wife.  They arrived in Australia on 2 May 2006 and on 10 June 2006 a delegate of the first respondent refused their application for a protection visa.  That decision was affirmed by the Refugee Review Tribunal in a decision signed 18 September 2006.  The Tribunal found the claims of the applicant husband ("the applicant") to have suffered persecution on account of his Hindu beliefs to be implausible and unsupported by credible evidence.  The applicant lived in a State where Hindus formed the majority.  The Tribunal held that if the applicant was in fact subject to persecution on account of his beliefs he could relocate to another State where Hindus were in the majority.

2. In the Federal Magistrates Court Emmett FM dismissed the application.  Her Honour held that no jurisdictional error in the decision of the Tribunal had been established.

3. In the Federal Court, the sole ground of appeal advanced by the applicant was that the Tribunal breached s 424A(1) of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) ("the Act"). North J held that the ground of appeal bore no relationship to the facts or circumstances of the proceeding, and that s 424A(1) had not been breached. The appeal to the Federal Court was dismissed on 9 November 2007.

4. In his application for special leave to appeal to this Court, the applicant does not particularise his claim that the Tribunal breached s 424A(1) of the Act. The Tribunal did not breach this provision, and there is no reason to doubt the correctness of the decision of the Federal Court.

5. Pursuant to r 41.10.5 we direct the Registrar to draw up, sign and seal an order dismissing the application for special leave.

W.M.C. Gummow
24 April 2008 S.M. Kiefel