Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia

Sir Salamo said currently there are 36 permanent judges and four acting judges. This does not include himself and the Deputy Chief Justice Sir Gibbs Salika.

“We obviously need more judges to dispose of the growing volume of cases,” Sir Salamo said. 

At 36 permanent judges, they have another six more permanent judges to appoint.

“The idle number is between 60 to 80 judges but we are going by the current ceiling which is 40 and we are close to reaching that,” he said.

Of the 40 Judges, only 14 are based in Waigani while the rest are based in the provinces.

Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia revealed this today when addressing new lawyers in court.

He said even when a case is started on time, the party suffer losses because judges and lawyers waste time mooting over trivial or minor issues that occupy time and the main case is never reached in time.   

He told the court there are many judgements that are outstanding for too long, some of which goes back some five to ten years in the National Court from the day the decision was deferred or reserved.

Sir Salamo in presiding over the cases yesterday (Feb 12) said he wants to see the time spent by counsels in preparing draft index books cut down so the matters can be expedited.

He said there are too many delays in the cases that money is being wasted and counsels should work on getting to have the substantive issue resolved quickly.