Locked up in an Immigration Detention centre in Adelaide, Gurbir Singh’s chances of securing a visa were scuttled due to a faulty telephone line, prompting him to approach the Federal Circuit Court.
Singh’s application for a bridging visa was refused by a delegate of the Immigration Minister on 2 May 2016, leaving him with a window of just two days to apply to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a review of the decision.
Though Gurbir claimed he gave his application to a detainee officer of the detention centre to be faxed on 3 May 2016, the Tribunal said it had no jurisdiction over the matter as the application wasn’t received before 4th May 2016.
It turned out his application wasn’t received at the tribunal because of a fault in the telephone line. The court was told another application faxed at the same time was received, but the phone line dropped because of which Singh’s application was not received.
When he did not receive a confirmation letter even two days after sending his application, Gurbir contacted the tribunal and was told his application wasn’t there.
When he sent the application again on 5 May 2016, the mandatory timeframe for applying for a review of two days from the time of the decision had already passed. Based on that, the tribunal ruled that it did not have a jurisdiction to hear the appeal.
The Federal Circuit Court upheld the tribunal’s decision.
The counsel for the Minister of Immigration and Border Protection conceded that if Mr Singh had genuinely made an attempt to fax his application then the way the law operated could be “extremely harsh”.
Mr Singh will now, in accordance with the law, is eligible to make a further application since the 30-day waiting period is over.
But lawyer Michael Arch of Concordia Law says the tribunal should have considered Singh’s circumstances.
“It’s appalling and mind-bogglingly horrendous that this has happened,” said Mr Arch.
“In my view, the tribunal, considering the circumstances that this person did not have free access to means of communication because he is in a detention centre, should have accorded him flexibility,” he added.
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