Case: SZGJO v Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs [2006] FCA 393
Outcome: cited
the contrary, in the ordinary course, the instruction to the agent to submit "all the matters on my behalf" would include the completion of the application form and lodgement of the application with the Tribunal. Similar instructions have been found to give rise to an authority to sign a protection visa application ( SZGJO v Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs [2006] FCA 393 at [7] ). On the basis of the evidence before me, and in circumstances where the applicant gave that general authority and expected it to result in an appearance before the Tribunal, I am satisfied that the agent's authority extended to an authorisation to sign the application form on her behalf. I am also satisfied, in the circumstances, that the agent's authority extended to an authority for Mr Mollah to receive correspondence in relation to the review by the Tribunal. That is, the applicant authorised the agent to give the Tribunal written notice of his own name and address as the person authorised by the applicant to receive documents. Such notice was given by Mr Mollah when he completed and sent the application form. He became an "authorised recipient" within the meaning of s 441G(1)(b) of the Act. An application to the Tribunal for review must be in the approved form (s 412(1)(a) of the Act). Accepting the applicant's evidence that the signature on the application form was not hers, a question arises as to the status of the application to the Tribunal. It may be that an application must be signed personally by an applicant to be in approved form. If the application was defective for this reason, the applicant had not applied to the Tribunal for review of the delegate's decision. The Tribunal then had no jurisdiction to hear the application. It would follow that an appeal to this Court alleging a failure by the Tribunal to give notice of the hearing and failure by the Federal Magistrate to make that finding does not arise and the application for an extension of time to appeal should be refused ( SZGJO v Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs [2006] FCA 393 at [4] to [5]). If an application form need not be signed by an applicant personally, the application for review by the Tribunal was validly made. However, as I have noted, notice was given to the Tribunal that Mr Mollah was the "authorised recipient" for the purposes of s 441G of the Act. Where the Tribunal gives a document to the authorised recipient, the Tribunal is taken to have given the document to the applicant (s 441G(2) of the Act). Indeed, the Tribunal is required to give documents to the authorised recipient (s 441G(1)). Accordingly, in corresponding with the agent alone, the Tribunal did not deny the applicant procedural fairness. If the application was valid the Tribunal was entitled to proceed pursuant to s 426A of the Act and no jurisdictional error has been established. The parties did not make submissions on whether an application to the Tribunal must be signed personally by an applicant in order to be in approved form. In any event, the proposed appeal must fail. It cannot be established that there has been any jurisdictional error on the part of the Tribunal.