A group of 157 Sri Lankan asylum seekers faced a "torturous journey" during a month-long detention standoff at sea while the federal government tried to send them to India, the High Court was told.
The case to determine the federal government's power to remove asylum seekers from Australia's contiguous zone, just outside territorial waters, and send them to other countries went before the full bench in Canberra on Tuesday.
It centres on one man, a Christian Tamil known only as CPCF, who was fleeing persecution for being politically active.
His legal team are seeking damages for what they claim was unlawful detention aboard the Customs vessel Ocean Protector for almost a month.
Their boat was intercepted 16 nautical miles off Christmas Island 16 days after they left India on June 13. It is the only official asylum seeker boat arrival to Australia this year.
The government decided to return the group to India on July 1 but by July 23 that option was deemed no longer practical.
Four days later they arrived on Australia's Cocos (Keeling) Islands and were transferred briefly to the mainland before going to Nauru.
Lawyer Ron Merkel QC told the court the asylum seekers were deprived of their liberty, denied procedural fairness and were not consulted about where they wished to be taken.
They were not allowed to walk around the boat or mix with their families and were held in windowless cabins for 22 hours a day.
The length of detention was unreasonable, Mr Merkel said.
"A tortuous journey occurred," he told the court.
Mr Merkel argued India was not a safe destination because it was not a signatory to the UN conventions on refugees and torture.
The government's lawyers insist the detention at sea was legal and the plan to send them to India did not breach Australia's non-refoulement obligations under international law.
They maintain it was lawful for the ship to be travelling to India while negotiations were still underway.
There was no right to procedural fairness under maritime power laws.
They also argue it was too dangerous for border protection personnel to have consulted the asylum seekers about their destination, because they were outnumbered three to one.
The Australian authorities could not tell the group of plans to return them to India because of fears of sabotage to the ship.
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