Supreme court issues stay order on eviction

The Supreme Court has issued direction to put on hold the eviction exercise being carried out on landowners, settlers and residents of portion 1221 at 14 mile, outside Port Moresby.

The direction was issued this morning by Human Rights Judge, Justice David Cannings.

The stay order also covers the National Court’s decision to carry out the eviction.

Lawyer representing the landowners of Behori Koiari, Peter Daime applied for the stay order, and also appealed against the National Courts decision of October 9th, recognizing NCDC as the legitimate land title holder.

All parties will return to court on Monday 2nd November, for Justice Cannings to hear the appeal.

Counsel Daime said, “Today we just got a direction for Justice David Cannings to list the application for stay file on the 30th of October 2020 for the 2nd of November 2020.”

“So what we will be doing now is serving the appeal and application on a stay order on the respondents, NCDC and the police hierarchy, Police Commissioner and Metropolitan Superintendent advising them,” he said.

“The Direction that I got from the registry is that, the direction also acts as a stay on the National court orders until it is heard on Monday. So I am going to do a letter clarifying this explanation from the Supreme Court registry and serve it on the defendants with documents telling them to cease eviction at this moment until we make our application on Monday.”

Counsel Daime says this notice is effective until the court issues further instructions on Monday.

Author: 
Jemimah Sukbat