Australia, March 31 -- New South Wales Land and Environment Court issued text of the following judgementon March 4:

1. In this matter the proposed plaintiff, the Commissioner of Police for New South Wales, proceeds ex parte, having given the proposed defendant notice of this application about four hours ago at about 11am. The proposed defendant is aware of this application and apparently asks that it be adjourned for one week. The Commissioner moves on a notice of motion and reads the affidavit of Erica Berki affirmed on 4 March 2025. In short, the Commissioner wishes to commence proceedings by way of summons seeking certain orders against the defendant for reasons which will become apparent.

2. As will be disclosed in the reasons that follow, in my opinion it is preferable that orders be made today on an interim basis and that the substantive matter be stood over for one week before the duty judge.

3. The proposed defendant, Marcel Joukhador, has apparently obtained material from the Court's registry which the Court has previously upheld as subject to public interest immunity (see Joukhador v Commissioner of Police [2017] NSWSC 1653 per McCallum J). He has also apparently obtained the confidential affidavit evidence that was adduced in support of the public interest immunity claim to which he was not given access, and which McCallum J referred to at [17]-[24] of her judgment.

4. The proposed plaintiff seeks interlocutory relief to protect the public interest from further harm and to secure the information in question from being further disseminated pending determination of final relief.

5. The matter comes before the Court in the context of other proceedings between Mr Joukhador and the Commissioner and her predecessor. Relevantly, in 2017, in proceedings before McCallum J, Mr Joukhador challenged the validity of three search warrants pursuant to which documents had been seized from his premises and he sought to advance claims of legal professional privilege. Henry Davis York, who then later merged with Norton Rose Fulbright Australia (NRFA), acted for the then Commissioner.

6. In the course of those administrative law proceedings, Mr Joukhador sought production of the material placed before the judicial officer who had granted the warrants (the application documents). The then Commissioner claimed public interest immunity with respect to the application documents in unredacted form, but ultimately provided redacted versions.

7. When the public interest immunity claim came before McCallum J, the claim for public interest immunity was maintained on the basis that disclosure of confidential information within the application documents could prejudice ongoing investigations. In support of that claim, the Commissioner relied on the confidential affidavits to which I have referred. Later, the Court determined the administrative law proceedings as a whole, mostly adverse to Mr Joukhador (see Joukhador v Commissioner of Police [2018] NSWSC 872).

*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/19569fdf44c143368211ff59)

Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.