The National Court has refused to grant leave for a judicial review application filed by former secretary for the Department of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Fr. Jan Czuba.
The review was to reconsider a National Court decision of May 24th, where the court rejected an application by Fr. Jan to stay a decision by NEC suspending him from office.
In a decision handed down this morning, Justice Nicholas Miviri outlined the timeline of his suspension.
He said the Secretary for the Department of Prime Minister, Ivan Pomaleu had written to Fr. Jan advising that decision to suspend him involved proper consultation with the Minister for Public Service, Joe Sungi, the Public Services Commission and the Department of Prime Minister leading to the NEC decision.
“It is clear that from the beginning of the internal process with the Minister for Department of Higher Education , Research, Science and Technology and Sports, Wesley Raminai , which led to all relevant agencies of the government who played their parts in suspending the plaintiff (Fr. Jan) for three months.”
Pending completion of that process, Fr. Jan is still suspended until the allegations leveled against him are cleared.
Justice Miviri said Minister Raminai had written to Fr. Jan to voluntarily step down without a formal suspension on the 26th of March. Fr. Jan however refused to step down.
On the 19th of May, the NEC formally suspended him as the Secretary for the Department of Higher Education, Science and Technology.