Former Canberra taxi driver Jasbir Singh, 51, has appeal application rejected after uploading child porn

Jasbir Singh, 51, had been sentenced by the ACT Supreme Court to a suspended 12-month jail term after he pleaded guilty to charges related to the video upload in 2018, which he said was to "highlight this terrible criminal activity".

The charges, as listed in both the civil and criminal jurisdictions for this case, were using a carriage service to transmit child pornography material and possession of child exploitation material.

The former is now known as child abuse material following legislative changes in 2019.

Following his criminal case, his public vehicle taxi licence and registration to work with vulnerable people were cancelled by the transport department and the Fair Trading Commissioner, respectively.

Singh, who had no prior criminal history and worked in the industry for about nine years, then went through the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal twice to try to overturn those cancellations but failed both times.

On Thursday, the former railway technician in India represented himself in the ACT Supreme Court in another bid for mercy.

He broke down in tears saying he had "no relation to this cruelty" and that he regretted his actions.

"[It is] only one video this first time ... I see this as cruelty because according to my childhood, I am a religious man," he said.

Singh cited his family circumstances and said he needed to re-enter the taxi industry to provide stability and income for his children.

He also said no one was giving him another chance and no one was listening to him.

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The registration under the Crimes (Child Sex Offenders) Act 2005 remain in place only unless a court removes Singh's convictions, the court heard.

Justice David Mossop dismissed Singh's appeal application, saying the tribunal decisions did not give rise to "to an arguable ground of appeal" and that the previous appeal did not identify any error of fact or law.

He said the case was unusual as "the outcome appears to be a harsh one because of the broad net cast by the child sex offender's registration regime".

A crux of the civil hearings was whether taxi driving was a regulated activity involving children and if the transport department could impose the condition of not carrying children on him.

The civil jurisdiction concluded that even if such a condition were placed, he would be unable to use such a limited registration because he did not and could not have a public vehicle taxi licence due to him being a registrable offender.

Justice Mossop said the guidelines in which the department had to work with lacked discretion.

"The potential for injustice to an individual to arise under that regime because of the absence of any discretion is however not a matter than can be cured by this court," he said.

"For a person of Mr Singh's background, the rigidity of the law and the lack of capacity to examine the merits of his situation gives rise to a sense of injustice.

"This court has to apply the law even if it is a bad law, even if it is a law that creates an injustice."

Earlier in the hearing, counsel for the Fair Trading Commissioner Max Roberts asked Justice Mossop to dismiss the appeal or refuse the application in the alternative because Singh's latest application was a "reiteration of a previous application".

Asked by the judge if the lifetime sex-offending registration was an "extraordinarily harsh consequence", Mr Roberts said: "It may seem disproportionate".

"The legislation of course is meant to cover offences that perhaps are more extreme than Mr Singh's, but that's the intent of the legislation," Mr Roberts said.

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