SZLGJ v Minister for Immigration and Citizenship

[2008] HCASL 501

SZLGJ
v
MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION AND CITIZENSHIP & ANOR
[2008] HCASL 501
S279/2008

1. This is an application for special leave to appeal from orders of the Federal Court of Australia (Graham J), made in May 2008. His Honour dismissed an appeal from orders of the Federal Magistrates Court (Scarlett FM) made in February 2008. Both courts rejected the applicant's contention of jurisdictional error. The Federal Magistrate specifically found that the Refugee Review Tribunal ("the Tribunal") had not misapplied s 91R(2) of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth).

2. The applicant is a national of India who arrived in Australia in March 2007 and promptly applied for a protection visa, claiming to be a "refugee" within the Refugees Convention and Protocol.  A delegate of the Minister, in March 2007, refused his application for protection.  The applicant then sought review by the Refugee Review Tribunal which, in August 2007, dismissed that application, concluding that the applicant was not owed protection obligations.

3. The foundation for the applicant's claims was his alleged fear of persecution, as a Muslim, because of a relationship he had formed with a Hindu woman whose father was an active member of RSS (Sangh Parivar).

4. The Tribunal found that the applicant was not a credible witness.  It recorded that the first application for a visa to travel to Australia had been made before one of the main instances of physical attack complained of was said to have occurred.  It described elements of the applicant's claims as implausible.  The applications for review, and judicial review, have been substantially of a formulaic variety.  They faced obvious difficulties in overcoming the foregoing factual conclusions which were open to the bodies making them without any apparent jurisdictional error.

5. No question of law or of legal or other principle has been identified such as would warrant the grant of special leave to appeal.  There is no hint of jurisdictional error in the reasoning of the Tribunal or error on the part of the courts that have reviewed that decision.  The application for special leave is therefore dismissed.

6. In accordance with Rule 41.10.5 of the High Court Rules we direct the Registrar to draw up, sign and seal an order dismissing the application.

M.D. Kirby
28 August 2008 J.D. Heydon