Kondra asks court to revisit appeal

Suspended Member for North Fly Boka Kondra has gone before the Supreme Court asking it to revisit its earlier decision with a Slip Rule application.

He sought leave of the court on Tuesday before Justice Frazer Pitpit and the court reserved its decision to Wednesday.

Kondra’s lawyer, Philip Ame’s argument in court was mainly on the punishment recommendation that the Chairman of the Tribunal, Justice Salatiel Lenalia made during the Tribunal hearing in 2015.

He said the Tribunal flawed by making separate decisions on the recommended penalty.

On April 27, 2015, the Leadership Tribunal found Kondra guilty to six counts of misconduct in office.

Ame said the Tribunal on that day made remarks of recommendations for Kondra to be prosecuted criminally by the Office of the Public Prosecutor, however on May 29, 2015 the tribunal recommended that the MP be dismissed from office.

Tauvasa Tanuvasa, the Lawyer representing members of the Tribunal as well as the Public Prosecutor submitted that the application itself is incompetent because the issues raised now were not raised in the appeal.

He said these are new grounds as it was not raised in the appeal. He also said the Supreme Court made no mistakes and what Slip Rule applications is about should be on errors or slip made in Supreme Court appeals.

The Supreme Court on November 30, 2016, dismissed Kondra’s appeal because it found that the trial judge in the National Court, and the Leadership Tribunal members, made no errors in reaching their respective decisions.

 Tanuvasa said although the Slip Rule application was filed on the 21st day after the appeal was dismissed, it was not served on the Public Prosecutor’s office  until Dec 9, 2016 thus a mandatory requirement was not satisfied in seeking leave for Slip Rule applications.

In this application, Kondra is asking the Supreme Court to revisit its decision. It is also asking the high court to set aside the orders made on Nov 30,2016 which discharged the stay orders against the dismissal recommendation made by the Leadership Tribunal on May 29, 2015.

 

 

Author: 
Sally Pokiton