SZBKC v Minister for Immigration & Multicultural & Indigenous Affairs [2005] FCA 1416

FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

SZBKC v Minister for Immigration & Multicultural & Indigenous Affairs [2005] FCA 1416 SZBKC v Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs and REFUGEE REVIEW TRIBUNAL NSD 1033 OF 2005 STONE J 6 OCTOBER 2005 SYDNEY

IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

NEW SOUTH WALES DISTRICT REGISTRY NSD 1033 OF 2005

ON APPEAL FROM THE FEDERAL MAGISTRATES COURT OF AUSTRALIA

BETWEEN: SZBKC

APPELLANT

AND: Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs

FIRST RESPONDENT

REFUGEE REVIEW TRIBUNAL

SECOND RESPONDENT

JUDGE: STONE J

DATE OF ORDER: 6 OCTOBER 2005

WHERE MADE: SYDNEY

THE COURT ORDERS THAT: 1. The appeal be dismissed. 2. The appellant pay the first respondent's costs of the appeal. Note: Settlement and entry of orders is dealt with in Order 36 of the Federal Court Rules.

IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

NEW SOUTH WALES DISTRICT REGISTRY NSD 1033 OF 2005

ON APPEAL FROM THE FEDERAL MAGISTRATES COURT OF AUSTRALIA

BETWEEN: SZBKC

APPELLANT

AND: Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs

FIRST RESPONDENT

REFUGEE REVIEW TRIBUNAL

SECOND RESPONDENT

JUDGE: STONE J

DATE: 6 OCTOBER 2005

PLACE: SYDNEY

REASONS FOR JUDGMENT 1 This is an appeal from a decision of a Federal Magistrate made on 20 May 2005. His Honour dismissed an application for review of a decision of the Refugee Review Tribunal ('Tribunal') made on 31 July 1995.

Background 2 The appellant, a Sikh, is a citizen of India who arrived in Australia on 1 August 1992. On 7 March 1994, the appellant applied for refugee status with the Department of Immigration, Local Government and Ethnic Affairs ('Department'). The application was rejected by a delegate of the Minister for Immigration, Local Government and Ethnic Affairs. On 21 June 1994, the appellant lodged an application for review with the Tribunal. 3 The Federal Magistrate summarised the appellant's claim for refugee status at [3] of his reasons: 'The facts upon which the applicant bases his claim are that he was a person from a rural village in the Jallandhar District of the Punjab. He graduated from University in [1977] and worked on a farm and then in a cotton mill as a clerk. He feared returning to the Punjab because of harassment and harsh treatment faced by ordinary Sikhs from both the authorities and from militant Sikhs. He stated that he had joined a militant organisation Babbar Khalsa in 1984, but he had left that around 1988. However, because his father, the head man of his village, regularly provided food and shelter to militants, the applicant had been arrested twice by police in 1989 on suspicion of having aided the militants. On the first occasion he was held for two weeks and released on the payment or a bribe. On the second occasion, he was detained towards the end of 1989 and held for three weeks and again questioned about militants. He stated that he had been beaten in custody, and asked about people seeking shelter in his village. He told the Tribunal that he had not been detained again after the second occasion in 1989, but he had been questioned several times about militant activities, the last time being in July 1992.'