Legal cases
Cases
Dr Rifaat Dimian
Medical practitioner
Merrylands, NSW
The (then) Health Insurance Commission referred Dr Dimian on 17 May 2000 because it was concerned that he might have engaged in inappropriate practice through high daily servicing and a high volume of rendered services between 1 July 1998 and 30 June 1999. A Committee reported that Dr Dimian had engaged in inappropriate practice, largely because of lack of clinical input and poor clinical records.
Dr Dimian appealed to the Federal Court on constitutional grounds and two others: failure to offer a section 92 agreement and lack of procedural fairness in preparation of the Committee report.
A single judge dismissed the appeals on non-constitutional grounds on 8 December 2004,71 and the Full Court dismissed them on 16 September 2005.72
On 3 May 2006 Dr Dimian (with Dr Kenneth Wong) filed a Writ of Summons in the High Court, which claimed that various provisions of the Act were constitutionally invalid because:
- on a practical matter, they amounted to ‘civil conscription’ within the meaning of section 51(xxiiiA) of the Constitution
- contrary to section 71 of the Constitution, they purported to confer part of the judicial power of the Commonwealth on people who had not been appointed pursuant to section 72 of the Constitution.
The High Court remitted this case to the Federal Court, and the Full Court decided to consider the cases of Doctors Selim, Dimian and Wong together.
On 27 February 2008 the Full Court dismissed the constitutional appeals.73 The Determining Authority has agreed not to proceed until the outcome of the applications to the High Court by Doctors Selim and Wong is known.74
Dr Dimian did not seek special leave to appeal to the High Court.
- 71 Dimian v HIC [2004] FCA 1615; PSR Annual Report 2004–05 p. 54
- 72 Dimian v HIC [2005] FCAFC 200; PSR Annual Report 2005–06 p. 50
- 73 Selim v Lele [2008] FCAFC 13; pp. 45 of this Annual Report
- 74 See note 54