Federal Court. As the decision that the applicant sought to compel by mandamus was made favourably to him, with the result that he obtained the practical outcome he pursued, should he be awarded costs? If so, should those costs be offset by costs which the applicant was awarded to pay in a previous court proceeding?
The Federal Court (FCA) described the case as follows:
3 On 16 March 2021, while in detention, the applicant made an application for a protection visa. The application was refused by a delegate of the first respondent (the Minister) on 14 July 2022. However, on 20 October 2022 the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (the Tribunal) set aside that decision. It remitted the matter to the Minister with a direction that the applicant satisfied the criterion in s 36(2)(a) of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) (the Act). When he commenced the proceeding (around 18 months after the Tribunal’sdecision), the applicant was still waiting to hear from the Minister’s department as to the progress of his visa application.
4 The applicant sought:
(a) an order in the nature of habeas corpus, requiring his release from detention; and
(b) mandamus to require the Minister to perform the duty under s 65 of the Act to make a decision on his visa application; and
(c) declarations of the unlawfulness of his detention and of its unlawfulness since a date in the past to be determined by the Court.
On 1 May 2024, while the FCA proceeding was still on foot, the applicant was granted a protection visa and released from detention. This rendered the final relief sought in the FCA proceeding otiose/moot.
Some of the questions to the FCA were as follows:
Question 1: As the decision that the applicant sought to compel by mandamus was made favourably to him, with the result that he obtained the practical outcome he pursued, should he be awarded costs?
Question 2: If the answer to Question 1 is 'yes', should those costs be offset by costs which the applicant was awarded to pay in a previous court proceeding?
The FCA answered those questions as follows:
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