Minister for State Owned Enterprise and Kavieng MP, Ben Micah has gone to the Supreme Court seeking restraining orders to prevent Public Prosecutor, Pondros Kaluwin from acting on his referral.
A similar order was refused by the National court earlier.
His lawyers Mal Varitimos (QC) and Nelson Saroa, argued that the Ombudsman Commission acted beyond its jurisdiction by not giving Micah the opportunity to respond to further investigation information after his first response in August 2014.
Varitomos said there were subsequent events that led to additional information through summons issued to the Managing Directors of IPBC and Grand Papua Hotel where the allegations arose.
He said additional information obtained by the Commission was not made available to Micah to respond to prior to his referral to the Public Prosecutor on March 5.
This same ground was brought up at the National Court in May where Justice Leka Nablu dismissed his application for judicial review saying Micah had no arguable case.
Justice Nablu also in her ruling on May 20 said the additional information obtained by the Commission were not new allegations.
State lawyer Asher Chillion said the Commission’s function was to investigate and collect information of leaders and refer them to the Public Prosecutor who will then decide if he should refer them to the Chief Justice to appoint a tribunal.
He said Micah was called to the OC’s office on March 26 to be served a copy of his referral which he refused to sign.
A decision is expected today