The Supreme Court refused review orders under s 36 of the Magistrates Court Act 2004 (WA) in respect of interlocutory procedural decisions (adjournment grants, video link rulings) made by Magistrates in pending criminal proceedings, holding that none disclosed arguable jurisdictional error or denial of natural justice. The Court confirmed that the strong policy against fragmentation of criminal proceedings, drawn from Sankey v Whitlam and Gedeon, applies equally to s 36 MCA applications, and that even where grounds for a review order are established, the discretion to grant relief should not be exercised where there is no utility and the criminal process should be allowed to run its course. The Court also reiterated that each video link application must be assessed on its own terms, and that a defendant's application to appear remotely from an uncontrolled location involves different considerations from a prosecution witness's application.
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