Lawyers for a Sri Lankan refugee have urged Australia’s High Court to overrule its 2004 decision allowing indefinite detention.

The 36 year old man is one of 51 people granted refugee status, but denied a protection visa by Australia because of an adverse security assessment.

All are now effectively in indefinite detention, because Australia has been unable to find a third country to take them.

The indefinite detention of asylum seekers was challenged in the High Court in 2004 in a case brought by Kuwaiti-born Ahmed Ali Al-Kateb against the head of the Immigration Department.

He lost when a 4-3 majority of judges decided that indefinite detention was lawful.

Lawyers for the Sri Lankan man have told the High Court its 2004 decision is an obstacle to their case because it found indefinite detention is lawful.

But the court has been told the context is now fundamentally different.

The court has heard the differences include that the subject is a refugee and that there’s been a significant development in laws governing detention.

The High Court has been told the Migration Act does not authorise the removal of a person to whom Australia owes protection under the refugee convention.

The Sri Lankan man’s lawyers have told the court he is owed protection and should not be removed.

They also say his detention is unlawful and that he should be freed.

The court has agreed to allow the Human Rights Commission and two others to intervene in the case.

The case is continuing, Radio Australia reports.