Federal Court: FCA allowed an appeal by non-citizen Appellant, remitting the matter to AAT for reconsideration of Appellant's protection visa refusal. As Appellant could be unsuccessful at AAT again, he made interlocutory application under s 37AF of FCA Act, for suppression of aspects of the appeal orders, as he feared retaliation in Pakistan. "The issue is whether, to obtain an order, it is necessary to show that, absent an order being made, it would be probable that the person in question will suffer harm, or whether all the section requires is for the Court to be satisfied on the balance of probabilities that the order sought is necessary to protect the person’s safety". If Pakistani authorities already knew of Appellant's desertion anyway, should the suppression orders be limited to what those authorities still did not know, namely the content of his criticisms towards them?
The questions to the Federal Court were as follows:
Question 1: "The issue is whether, to obtain an order, it is necessary to show that, absent an order being made, it would be probable that the person in question will suffer harm, or whether all the section requires is for the Court to be satisfied on the balance of probabilities that the order sought is necessary to protect the person’s safety"?
Question 2: If Pakistani authorities already knew of the Appellant's desertion anyway, should the suppression orders be limited to what those authorities still did not know, namely the content of his criticisms towards them?
Question 3: ?
Question 4: ?
The FCA answered those questions as follows: