A legal challenge to the Australian government’s controversial ban on travellers from India has landed in the Federal Court.
Australian man Gary Newman, 73, has filed a lawsuit against Health Minister Greg Hunt.
He is currently in Bangalore, India, and wishes to return to Australia but is prevented by the ban, his lawyer Christopher Ward SC told the court at an urgent hearing before Justice Stephen Burley on Wednesday afternoon.
Mr Ward said the ban is being challenged on four bases, two of them relating to how the courts interpret legislation, one about questions of proportionality, and the fourth a constitutional argument.
Justice Burley ordered a hearing date be set in the next 24-48 hours.
The law banning anyone who has been in India in the past 14 days from entering Australia came into force on Monday and will be reviewed on May 15.
More to come.
