The Court held that a defendant in pending criminal proceedings cannot obtain declaratory relief in the Supreme Court to access surveillance warrant application materials where such materials can be sought through the criminal trial process. The Court confirmed that s 43 of the Surveillance Devices Act 2007 (NSW) only restricts access to protected information in the custody of the court, not protected information held by other agencies. The Court reaffirmed that challenges to the validity of surveillance warrants must generally be made in the criminal trial court to avoid fragmentation of proceedings.
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