Application for costs against the Applicant following dismissal of an application for judicial review in Karmakar v Minister for Health (No 2) [2021] FCA 916. The active party Respondents sought an order for costs against the Applicant following the dismissal of the application for review. The application for costs was opposed by Dr Karmakar who also sought a discount of any cost order and the excision of the reserved costs of an earlier interlocutory application by the Respondents. The Court was required to consider whether the proceeding concerned some element of public interest with respect to the elucidation of the operation of Part VAA of the Health Insurance Act 1973 or the constitutional validity of s 106ZR. Justice Logan held that the public interest element did not remove the case from the kind described in Save the Ridge Inc v Commonwealth (2006) 230 ALR 411 at [13] and therefore costs ought to follow the event. The Applicant was ordered to pay the Respondent’s costs of the proceedings on the standard basis, excluding the costs of the interlocutory application but including the costs of a late application for discovery.
Rachel De Luchi appeared for the Applicant, instructed by Garner Legal & Regulatory.
The judgment is published here.
