Baban v Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs S236/2000 [2001] HCATrans 496 (12 October 2001)

IN THE HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA

Office of the Registry

Sydney No S236 of 2000

B e t w e e n -

OMAR SHARIF BABAN

Applicant

and

MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION AND MULTICULTURAL AFFAIRS

Respondent

Application for special leave to appeal

GAUDRON J

McHUGH J

TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

AT SYDNEY ON FRIDAY, 12 OCTOBER 2001, AT 12.44 PM

Copyright in the High Court of Australia

MR J.D. SMITH: May it please the Court, I appear for the respondent. (instructed by the Australian Government Solicitor)

GAUDRON J: Is the Deputy Registrar present? Perhaps you could call the matter outside the Court.

THE DEPUTY REGISTRAR: No appearance, your Honour.

GAUDRON J: Thank you.

MR SMITH: Your Honour, in the absence of the applicant, I would ask that the application be dismissed with costs.

GAUDRON J: I can understand why you might do that, but I read in the papers somewhere that there was a young child whose application was dependent on the father's application. I do not know what has happened to the young child.

MR SMITH: The young child escaped with his father, your Honour.

GAUDRON J: It is the position of the young child that concerns me, Mr Smith. Presumably he cannot be held responsible for what has happened and it would just seem fairer to the young child - and I speak only of the young child - to just stand the matter over with liberty to restore, just in case something might - - -

MR SMITH: Yes, I understand your Honour's concern.

GAUDRON J: Yes. It just seems not right to have the child permanently locked out.

MR SMITH: Your Honour, my reading of the rules is that if the Court were to dismiss the application in the absence of the applicant today, the applicant could make an application to restore the matter, although that is restricted to 14 days.

GAUDRON J: You may well be right but I would need to study the latest lot of amendments in the Migration Amendment Acts before I would comfortably conclude that anything could be done.

MR SMITH: As your Honour pleases. My reading is that they would not affect this application.

GAUDRON J: I am not too sure about that. I think the preferable course is simply to stand the matter out of the list to be restored only on 14 days written notice to the Minister.

The Court will now adjourn until 2.15.

AT 12.48 PM THE MATTER WAS ADJOURNED