Singh v Health Care Complaints Commission [2024] NSWSC 1307

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Singh v Health Care Complaints Commission [2024] NSWSC 1307 Hearing dates: 9 October 2024 Date of orders: 18 October 2024 Decision date: 18 October 2024 Jurisdiction: Common Law Before: Griffiths AJA Decision: At [112]-[114] Catchwords: OCCUPATIONS — health care professionals — medical practitioners — Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (NSW) — unsatisfactory professional conduct — professional misconduct — where NCAT made findings that the plaintiff engaged in inappropriate sexual communication and intimate physical touching during treatment of a patient — where the plaintiff's registration as a chiropractor cancelled — whether NCAT erroneously reversed the normal onus of proof in disciplinary proceedings — whether NCAT erroneously treated disciplinary proceedings as sexual offence proceedings — whether NCAT erroneously considered adverse credit findings made against plaintiff when considering whether plaintiff was "dishonest" for the purpose of determining the appropriate sanction under the National Law APPEALS — leave to appeal — whether leave required — where no question of law identified in amended summons — where further amended summons alleged several errors of law — whether grounds of appeal clearly identified a question of law EVIDENCE — witness evidence — collusion — where NCAT made findings that the plaintiff had colluded with three witnesses — whether there was otherwise unexplained identical evidence of conversations from the relevant witnesses such that a finding of collusion was open to NCAT Legislation Cited: Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2013 (NSW), Sch 5, cl 29 Court Suppression and Non-publication Orders Act 2010 (NSW), ss 7, 8 Criminal Procedure Act 1986 (NSW), ss 292B, 292C, 292D, 293A, 294, 294AA Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (NSW), ss 139B, 139E, 149C, 150, 150H, 165L, 165M, Sch 5D, cl 2 Cases Cited: Browne v Dunn (1893) 6 R 67 Day v Perisher Blue Pty Ltd (2005) 62 NSWLR 731; [2005] NSWCA 110 Fox v Percy (2003) 214 CLR 118; [2003] HCA 22 Health Care Complaints Commission v Priyamanna [2015] NSWCATOD 138 Hossain v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection (2018) 264 CLR 123; [2018] HCA 34 Jan v Health Care Complaints Commission [2021] NSWSC 350 King v Health Care Complaints Commission [2011] NSWCA 353 Kudrynski v Orange City Council [2024] NSWCA 33 Maughan v R [2020] NSWCCA 51 Medical Council of New South Wales v Mooney [2024] NSWCA 180 Minister for Immigration v Wu Shan Liang (1996) 185 CLR 259; [1996] HCA 6 MZAPC v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection (2021) 273 CLR 506; [2021] HCA 17 Rao v R [2019] NSWCCA 290 Roads and Traffic Authority of New South Wales v Mosca [2006] NSWCA 159; (2006) 146 LGERA 335 Seamez v McLaughlin [1999] NSWSC 9 Thomas and Naaz Pty Ltd v Chief Commissioner of State Revenue [2023] NSWCA 40 Xie & Ors v Qin & Anor; Qin v Taylor International Investment Pty Ltd [2023] NSWSC 254 Xu v R [2019] NSWCCA 178 Texts Cited: Nil Category: Principal judgment Parties: Atil Rivlesh Singh (Plaintiff) Health Care Complaints Commission (Defendant) Representation: Counsel: J R Young (Plaintiff) A Petrie / K Sharma (Defendant)