Case: Singh v Secretary, Department of Family and Community Services [2006] FCA 189
Outcome: referred to
on 6 February 2006 Mr Singh sought to issue a further notice of motion. That matter was heard in chambers by Ryan J who on 8 March 2006, directed the Registrar not to accept the notice of motion: Singh v Secretary, Department of Family and Community Services [2006] FCA 189. In the interim, on 31 October 2005 Mr Singh wrote to a delegate of the Secretary to the Department of Family and Community Services requesting a recalculation of the compensation debt. A Centrelink officer refused that request, citing the various decisions previously made by the Federal Court. That decision was affirmed on review by an authorised review officer, and on 22 March 2006, on appeal to the SSAT. It was against that decision of the SSAT of 22 March 2006 that Mr Singh sought review in the Tribunal. That application resulted in the Secretary, Department of Employment and Workplace Relations making an application to the Tribunal to have Mr Singh's application dismissed as frivolous and vexatious, and to have him prevented, without leave, from re-agitating the issues that have given rise to the numerous proceedings identified above. The Tribunal conducted a hearing on 19 June 2006. Mr Singh applied at the outset to have the Tribunal member, Mr John Handley, disqualified from hearing his application because Mr Handley was not "independent" having previously dealt with one of Mr Singh's many applications in relation to this matter. Eventually, Mr Singh withdrew that application and, as the Tribunal records (at [5]), consented to the matter proceeding before Mr Handley. In its reasons for decision, the Tribunal set out in some detail the history of Mr Singh's attempts to avoid having to repay the various sums totalling $88,633.34. It noted that he had provided some 300 pages of documents in support of his application to review the decision of the SSAT dated 22 March 2006, and that when he discovered that the respondent would seek to have his application summarily dismissed he wrote attaching another 68 documents. In addition he subsequently provided the respondent with a further 17 page document and, when the hearing commenced, lodged a further seven page document being the contentions upon which he relied. The Tribunal added that the application brought by Mr Singh was in its view "obviously untenable" and "utterly hopeless". It referred to the "repetitious appeals" lodged by Mr Singh as having no merit, and to the order of Ryan J on 8 March 2006 that the most recent application to this Court not be accepted because it amounted to an abuse of process. It described Mr Singh's constant attempts to re-litigate issues that had been conclusively determined against him as a waste of public resources, involving the harassment of persons, and as an abuse of process. It formulated its direction preventing him from bringing further proceedings, without the leave of the Tribunal, with some care. Its aim was to ensure that Mr Singh was not precluded from seeking review of decisions that were unrelated to those that were the subject of the numerous challenges brought by him in recent years. Mr Singh appeared before me without legal representation. He had the assistance of an interpreter, but generally seemed well able to communicate in English.