Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia

Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia allowed a final adjournment to Thursday and told parties to get all necessary documents in order before they return to court.

Parties in the case appeared before him to settle the index book, which will be used in the appeal hearing. However, certain court documents were not in the index books.

“I am a busy person and I want things done quickly. We need to get the appeal books ready to be heard in the October sitting,” Sir Salamo said.

This will also reduce the number of appeals against sentencing.

Deputy chief executive of the Judicial Commission of New South Wales, Murali Sagi, said the sentencing database is not to limit a judge’s discretion but is a guide to deciding sentencing.

Designed by the Judicial Commission of New South Wales under the guidance of PNG’s Chief Justice, Sir Salamo Injia, the sentencing database provides judges similar cases and other reference materials to assist them with their decisions.

Sir Salamo said 109 election petitions were filed contesting the election of 111 seats in the National Parliament five year term after the 2012 General Elections.

“Unlike previous election cases, all petitions have been completed within four years.”

He said although appeals are not allowed by Constitutional law in PNG, discretionary reviews filed numbering 88 have been completed.

Sir Salamo said these in his presentation: “Myth or Reality” on the Quality of Justice in the pacific during the 2016 Pacific Judicial Conference.

PNG’s Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia says PNG’s participation in the sector wide initiatives has seen a wide collaboration and support amongst sector agencies that is now increasing access to judicial and legal services.

“The wide-sector approach has been adopted in several Common Law countries and like PNG, achieved good results.”

He said in order to expand its operations to the provinces, the judiciary has insisted upon and assumed full responsibility over the development of its own court buildings and facilities.

A three-judge Supreme Court bench found that there was no conflict of interest and no reasonable apprehension of bias when he appointed members of the tribunal to investigate the allegations of misconduct in office.

Namah’s lawyer Greg Sheppard had earlier argued in court that Sir Salamo, in appointing a leadership tribunal against Namah, was unlawful as the Chief Justice was involved in the referral as well as one of the 10 allegations against Namah.

The judge was requested to provide a statement of facts with the questions referred to the Supreme Court before the formal process begins for the reference.

The K3 billion UBS loan reference is before the high court under section 18(2) of the Constitution.  

Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia today issued directions requesting Justice Catherine Davani to formalise the process, after the referral was made by the National Court On Jan 28, 2015.  

Lawyer Ben Lomai, who is representing over 600 residents at the processing centre, will be assisting the Supreme Court to identify five of his clients to undergo the resettlement test case.

The request came from Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia on Monday when receiving an update of the progress on processing on the island from Laias Kandi, the lawyer representing Immigration Minister Rimbink Pato and the Chief Migration officer Mataio Rabura.

The case returned for directions on Thursday afternoon before Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia.

He directed parties in the case to return to court on Monday, July 18, and settle index books in the appeal before a hearing date is allocated for the appeal to be heard.  

Leave was granted by a three-judge Supreme Court bench on June 21 to hear the appeal. A stay was also granted on that day against the decision of the National Court on March 1, dismissing his judicial review.

Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia dismissed the appeal on Thursday. However, he said the Ombudsman Commission is at liberty to file a Supreme Court review of the National Court’s decision of Jan 28, 2015.

He said if a review is filed by the Ombudsman, it will be determined on its merits.

The Ombudsman’s appeal was dismissed after the court was told that the documents for the appeal could not be located in the registry, despite a Supreme Court reference number or court file number being given for the case on March 6, 2015.

This was what the lawyer representing the chief migration officer and Minister for Immigration, Laias Kandi, told the Supreme Court.

Kandi returned to court on Tuesday afternoon with a list of particulars, as requested by Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia on June 22, of all transferees brought to Manus from Australia in 2013. 

They have been categorised into three main groups; those processed and identified as refugees, the asylum seekers currently still undergoing processing and those identified as non-refugees.