Minister for Foreign Affairs and Immigration, Rimbink Pato, is challenging two cases in the Supreme Court filed in 2015 and last year by transferees at the Manus regional processing centre.
Minister Pato and the Chief Migration Officer, Mataio Rabura, are also challenging an application filed by the transferees’ lawyer, Ben Lomai, seeking summary judgment.
The transferees are seeking summary judgment from the Supreme Court that also covers compensation their illegal detainment, following the five-man Supreme Court bench ruling on April 26.
The hearing of the two applications, filed by the State, is set for Oct 27 before a three-judge bench.
Ian Molloy, the lawyer representing Minister Pato and CMO Rabura, is seeking to have the transferees’ application for summary judgment dismissed, saying the right procedure was not followed by their lawyer.
Molloy told the court this week that Lomai, who represented some 680 transferees in Manus, was not supposed to sign their applications.
While Molloy is disputing the jurisdiction of Lomai, saying it’s an abuse of process to sign documents before the court on behalf of his clients, Lomai says he acted within the right provision of the Supreme Court rules to sign as the attorney on behalf of his clients.