Costs when proceedings rendered moot by visa grant

Federal Circuit and Family Court. May a court "award costs where an underlying dispute is rendered moot, even where a decision is not delivered"? If so, where "the relevant supervening event occurs after a trial on the merits, with full argument and submissions from the parties, but before the decision is handed down", will those arguments hold greater weight in the decision whether to make a costs order? Should no order be made, as both sides got what they wanted?

According to the court, "the dispute between the parties was rendered moot following ministerial intervention and the granting of visas to each of the applicants".

Some of the questions to the Federal Circuit and Family Court (FCFC) were as follows:

Question 1: May a court "award costs where an underlying dispute is rendered moot, even where a decision is not delivered"?

Question 2: If the answer to Question 1 is 'yes', can it be said that where "the relevant supervening event occurs after a trial on the merits, with full argument and submissions from the parties, but before the decision is handed down, the merits of those arguments will hold greater weight in the Court’s decision whether to make an order in respect of the costs of the proceeding"?

Question 3: Can it be said that, in a sense, "both sides got what they wanted", in that the respondents "had the benefit of the dismissal of the applications and the applicants were granted visas which enabled them to be released from immigration detention", with the result that no order for costs should be made?

The FCFC answered those questions as follows:

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