Minister for Immigration and Citizenship v SZMDS

Minister for Immigration and Citizenship v SZMDS & ANOR [2010] 226 ALR 367 is a landmark Australian judgment of the High Court. The matter related to immigration law, jurisdictional error and ilogicality in appeals.

The applicant, known only by the code SZMDS, was a citizen of Pakistan had resided in the United Arab Emirates where he had been a practising homosexual from 2005 to 2007.</ref>[http://www.hcourt.gov.au/assets/publications/judgment-summaries/2010/hca16-2010-05-26.pdf High Court Briefing note on the verdict</ref> In 2007 he applied for refugee status in Australia.

In evidence it was produced that he did not seek asylum when he briefly visited the United Kingdom in 2006 and that a year latter he had return to Pakistan for three weeks.

At issue was whether a jurisdictional error had taken place when the applicants protection visa had be denied? and whether it was unreasonable or illogical to conclude the he did not fear persecution on return to his home land. In SZMDS, both the majority and minority judgments held that the jurisdictional fact was the Minister’s ultimate satisfaction, namely that an applicant satisfied the criteria for granting asylum.

The court then found that "The test for logicality or irrationality must be to ask whether logical or rational or reasonable minds might adopt different reasoning or might differ …” The court then found that the appellants behaviour was such that it reasonably appeared that he did not fear persecution on return. The Court held that it was open to the Tribunal to reject the first respondent's claimed fear of persecution.