This week in court reviewed

This week has seen two respective Governors feel the impact of the judicial arm of government.

Western Governor Ati Wobiro was found guilty of conspiring with two others to misappropriate funds by the National Court on Tuesday while Eastern Highlands Governor Julie Soso was given a penalty fine of K15,000 for disobeying orders of the Supreme Court on Thursday.

Soso indicated she will pay that fine by Friday while Wobiro remains detained at Bomana awaiting a bail application that is expected to be heard next Monday (Aug 1).

Also on Tuesday, the Supreme Court found that the Chief Justice, Sir Salamo Injia was able to act by operation of the constitution when he exercised his powers under the Organic Law when he appointed a Leadership Tribunal against Vanimo-Green MP, Belden Namah.  

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 Leadership Tribunal to investigate into the allegations of misconduct in office.

Namah’s lawyer Greg Sheppard had earlier argued in court that Sir Salamo Injia 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 court found otherwise.

Earlier on in the week, five identified refugees from the Regional Processing Centre in Manus were given their particulars to the Supreme Court to undergo test case of resettlement in PNG.

The Supreme Court was given the names of the refugees as well as their statements on Monday morning when the inquiry returned before the Chief Justice, Sir Salamo Injia.

Also on Monday, the judge who referred constitutional questions to the Supreme Court over the alleged improper borrowing of the K3 billion UBS loan by the Government was requested to formalize the referral. 

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 hearing in the high court. The referral was made by the National Court On Jan 28, 2015.

The week ended with the signing of the K427m contract between the National Judiciary Service and China Railway Construction today (Friday).

The K427m contract signed is for the next phase of court complex. This will pave way for the phase three of the K610 million court complex development that will be take place over the next four years for the National Judicial services.

This will house the three high courts: National court, Supreme Court and the new court of appeals.

Once completed, it will come with 14 court rooms, Judges Chambers, detainee holding cells and an administration building which will accommodate court registries and administrative functions.

 

 

Author: 
Sally Pokiton