Late last month the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions was forced to withdraw its charges against accused people smuggler Mohammed Hadi Parivash after a judge ruled that crucial identification evidence in the case was inadmissible because AFP officers failed to offer the accused an identification parade as demanded under the Commonwealth Crimes Act.

The officer in charge of the case told the court that it was standard practice not to undertake identification parades when the accused was a detainee because they were spread throughout the country and Department of Immigration records about their location were often out of date or simply wrong.

This revelation brought a stern response from the judge hearing the case, Robyn Tupman, who described it as ''institutional recklessness'' and anger from refugee advocates and lawyers, who said other similar cases were now in question.

Dozens of criminal cases involving asylum seekers have come before the courts in recent years, including multiple people-smuggling cases, malicious damage cases and cases of riot and affray. There are also numerous other cases before the courts at present.

''It would be a profound concern were a person, purely by reason of seeking refugee protection, was denied the ordinary protections of Australian law,'' the executive director of the Refugee and Immigration Legal Centre, David Manne, said. ''Every person is entitled to be on equal footing before the law and to be entitled due process.''

Julian Burnside, QC, said the case ''could have implications for criminal cases involving asylum seekers where identification is an issue. If an asylum seeker's identification parade hasn't been run because Immigration is unable to provide accurate information, then that's a denial of basic procedural fairness.''

Last month, the Downing Centre District Court heard that, rather than conducting a parade with Mr Parivash, who is an asylum seeker currently held at Villawood, investigators simply

showed the key witnesses in the case - himself an asylum seeker - a collection of photographs on a board.

Judge Tupman found that the failure to undertake an identification parade was a "serious contravention'' of the Commonwealth Crimes Act. She was scathingly critical of the general policy of not conducting identification parades in cases involving asylum seekers.

An AFP spokesman said the organisation was ''considering'' the judgment, but denied there was any ''policy or direction within the AFP to not undertake identification parades''.

He said the AFP and Immigration effectively shared information, but that people-smuggling investigations were difficult to conduct in terms of collecting evidence and applying legislative requirements.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said his department's relationship with the AFP was strong and the AFP had greater access to information than before.

"Since the election the minister has implemented a series of changes that have resulted in a closer working relationship between state and federal police and his department on matters relating to asylum seekers, including new regulatory powers to grant police greater access to information on asylum seeker details that was denied by the previous government," a spokesman for Mr Morrison said.

Mr Parivash is also an asylum seeker and is in detention at Villawood. He lost his wife and two children in December 2011 when an asylum-seeker vessel sank off the coast of East Java, claiming the lives of 200 passengers.

with David Wroe