Re Rafiq

The case of Re Rafiq concerns an application by Razdan Rafiq to review a Registrar's decision to refer certain proceedings to a Judge before accepting them for filing. Mr Rafiq has a history of initiating numerous proceedings in various courts, many of which have been dismissed or struck out as frivolous or vexatious. The Registrar referred several of Mr Rafiq's recent filings to a Judge due to their potential abuse of process. Mr Rafiq then filed another proceeding against the Attorney-General, seeking a declaration and damages, which was also referred to a Judge.

The legal issues before the court included whether the Registrar's decision to refer the proceedings to a Judge was justified and whether Mr Rafiq's actions constituted an abuse of the court process. The court had to determine whether Mr Rafiq's claims had any reasonable arguable cause of action and whether allowing them to proceed would be manifestly unfair or bring the administration of justice into disrepute.

The court found that the proceedings were indeed an abuse of process. The claims were frivolous and vexatious, with no reasonable arguable cause of action. Allowing these proceedings to proceed would waste the court's resources and unfairly burden the defendants. The court exercised its inherent jurisdiction to strike out the proceedings and directed the Registrar not to accept any further proceedings from Mr Rafiq without first referring them to a Judge. The application to review was dismissed.

In conclusion, the court dismissed the application to review and directed the Registrar to implement measures to prevent further abuse of the court process by Mr Rafiq.