Federal Court. AAT affirmed delegate's decision not to revoke under s 501CA(4) the mandatory cancellation of the Applicant's visa. On 10 Feb 2020, FCA quashed AAT's decision, but reserved its judgement on whether it should issue a writ of mandamus requiring AAT to determine the application according to law. Subsection 500(6L), which applied to the Applicant at the time of the AAT's decision, provided that the delegate's decision would be affirmed by default if the AAT did not make a decision within 84 from notification of the delegate's decision. Given that, by 10 Feb 2020, the 84-day deadline had already lapsed, would it be futile to issue a writ of mandamus? Or was the AAT's decision, despite having been quashed by the AAT, nevertheless a decision for the purposes of s 500(6L), with the result that that provision no longer applies?
The Federal Court answered that question as follows: