Australia's AAT, Administrative Appeals Tribunal has overturned Immigration Minister Peter Dutton's decision to deport sex convict former taxi driver, Jagdeep Singh to India.
34-year-old taxi driver Jagdeep Singh who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting his passenger was detained by Australian Border Force officials from his residence in Melbourne in May to be deported to India.
Singh sexually assaulted a female passenger in December 2015. He picked her up from Crown casino in Melbourne and drove her to her home in Clayton.
He put his hand on her legs while driving the car, and upon reaching the destination, got out and grabbed her forcibly, it was reported.
The girl tried to get away however he pressed himself up against her and tried to kiss her before he ran off when girl succeeded in drawing a housemate’s attention by screaming.
Singh pleaded guilty to the assault and was sentenced to 18-month community corrections order in December 2015 requiring him to do 150 hours of unpaid community service, Herald Sun reports.
His visa was cancelled too by the Immigration Department however Singh, appealed against this visa cancellation before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
In May this year, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton exercised his special powers to deport Singh to India.
Singh appealed this decision before the tribunal on June 5th and appeared for a hearing on 15th June in person.
AAT acting presindent, Justice John Logan granted a bridging visa to Singh on Friday, June 16th.
Justice Logan overturned ministerial decision to deport Jagdeep Singh and in written decision stated, "Mr Singh’s case and the Minister’s personal involvement, in recent times, have attracted publicity in the popular press, a fact to which he referred, in what I thought was an apprehensive way, in the course of the hearing.
"I assured him at the time that I was independent of the Minister and would bring an independent mind to bear on the merits of his application, irrespective of any earlier publicity.
"This makes it desirable to recall, both for Mr Singh’s benefit and more widely, why the Tribunal was established and features of the Tribunal. Also, certain features of the conduct of the Minister’s Department in relation to this review cannot pass unremarked.
"For the following reasons, I have concluded that the decision to refuse to grant to Mr Singh the visa for which he applied should be set aside."
But the case is not yet over. Despite Justice Logan's recent decision to grant him a visa, the Herald Sun reports Singh is back in detention awaiting deportation as Mr Dutton's delegate has again cancelled his visa granted by Justice Logan.
Singh arrived as a dependent on his wife’s student visa in 2008 and worked as a taxi driver from 2011.
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