The Court held that it has no jurisdiction to order the appointment of an interstate judge, as judicial appointments are exclusively an executive function under s 75B of the Constitution Act 1975 (Vic), following Vella v State of Western Australia. The Court further held that reframing such an application as one for declarations of 'appropriateness' of appointing an interstate judge cannot cure the jurisdictional deficiency, because the substance of the declarations sought would effectively disqualify all judges of the court on the basis of institutional bias, which is not a recognised ground for disqualification — the apprehended bias test must be applied to the specific judge hearing the matter, requiring identification of a logical connection between an interest of that judge and a feared deviation from deciding the case on its merits. The Court also struck out affidavit material and related documents as irrelevant, scandalous and an abuse of process under r 27.07 of the Supreme Court (General Civil Procedure) Rules 2025 (Vic).
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