The Court held that an order in the nature of certiorari is unavailable to quash an arrest warrant that has been executed and whose legal effect is spent, applying Wingfoot at [25]. Declaratory relief that an arrest warrant was invalid and unlawful was also refused where the warrant was no longer extant, the related criminal proceedings had concluded, and the declarations would not produce foreseeable consequences for the parties or finally determine the controversy — particularly where the plaintiff's stated interest was to bolster an anticipated but uncommenced civil suit. On the merits, the Court found that the registrar's decision to issue the warrant under s 181(2) of the Criminal Procedure Act 1986 (NSW) was not shown to involve jurisdictional error or error of law on the face of the record, and that the issuing officer was not obliged to assess whether the material was sufficient to found a conviction, nor required by statute to give reasons for issuing the warrant.
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