SZOTX v Minister for Immigration and Citizenship

[2011] HCASL 172

SZOTX
v
MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION AND CITIZENSHIP & ANOR
[2011] HCASL 172
S235/2011

1. A delegate of the first respondent refused the application of the applicant, a citizen of Pakistan, for a protection visa.  The second respondent ("the Tribunal") affirmed that decision.  The applicant claimed to have incurred the enmity of one political party after he left it in order to join a rival organisation.  The Tribunal rejected his claims about his political involvement and various threats allegedly made against him and his family.  It did so by reason of various improbabilities in his accounts.  It found that, even if his claims were true, the applicant could have obtained protection from the authorities. 

2. The applicant applied to the Federal Magistrates Court for review of the Tribunal's decision.  Driver FM dismissed the application on the ground that no jurisdictional error had been demonstrated.

3. The applicant appealed to the Federal Court of Australia (Foster J).  That appeal failed since the only point which the applicant ran did no more than raise impermissible merits review.

4. The draft Notice of Appeal filed by the applicant in support of his application for special leave to appeal to this Court is unparticularised, and this gap is not filled by the very general submissions of the applicant.  Those submissions are of a pro forma character bearing no relationship to the facts of the present case.

5. If special leave to appeal were granted, the appeal would have no prospects of success.  

6. The application is dismissed.

7. Pursuant to r 41.10.5 we direct the Registrar to draw up, sign and seal an order dismissing the application.

J.D. Heydon
26 October 2011 V.M. Bell