13 Apr 2017

Woman loses legal bid over passport cancellation

10:38 pm on 13 April 2017

A woman whose passport was cancelled last year by the Minister of Internal Affairs has lost a legal bid to force the release of classified information used as a basis for the cancellation.

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Photo: 123rf

In January the woman sought a High Court judicial review of the minister's decision.

Her passport was cancelled on the basis she was a danger to the security of a country other than New Zealand.

The Passports Act allows information relied on to suspend or cancel a passport to be defined as classified, meaning it can only be seen by the judge deciding the case and no one else.

She claimed that was a breach of her rights, but Justice Dobson has ruled while a closed-court hearing was anathema to a person's rights generally, Parliament had specifically enabled that to occur in cases involving classified security information.

The woman was granted name suppression by the court.

A full hearing of the case is expected to take place in June.