Westpac Banking Corporation v Director of Public Prosecutions (Cth) & Anor

Westpac Banking Corporation (Westpac) sought judicial review of a decision by the Director of Public Prosecutions (Cth) (DPP) to refuse to grant an application for a stay of proceedings. The proceedings in question were criminal proceedings brought by the DPP against Westpac in the Supreme Court of New South Wales. The dispute concerned the DPP's refusal to grant a stay, which Westpac argued was an abuse of process. The matter came before Gleeson CJ in the original jurisdiction of the High Court of Australia.

The central legal issue before the Court was whether the DPP's refusal to grant a stay of proceedings constituted an abuse of process, thereby warranting judicial review. This required the Court to consider the scope of the DPP's discretion in prosecuting criminal matters and the circumstances under which a court might intervene to prevent an abuse of process. Specifically, the Court had to determine if the DPP's decision was so unreasonable or improper as to be beyond the proper exercise of their prosecutorial discretion.

Gleeson CJ considered the principles governing prosecutorial discretion and the limited grounds upon which judicial review of such decisions may be granted. His Honour noted that the DPP has a broad discretion in deciding whether to prosecute and how to conduct prosecutions. The Court found that the DPP's decision to refuse the stay was not demonstrably unreasonable or an abuse of process, as there was no evidence that the DPP had acted in bad faith or in a manner that would bring the administration of justice into disrepute. The Court emphasised that the power to stay proceedings is an exceptional one, to be exercised only in clear cases of abuse.

The application for judicial review was dismissed.