Judiciary

“Our judiciary is an assurance that we have the rule of law as the guide to business, commerce and living in PNG. “We have survived economic turbulence, law-and-order issues, changes of government, natural calamities and many others, thus, we will be bigger, better and stronger into the future. As a matter of assurance to all of you who have business interests in PNG, at this juncture, I want to say ‘thank you’ to all the business community of our country,” he said.

PM Marape made these statements at the Annual PNG-Australia Business Forum in Brisbane.

22 containers containing building materials worth K3 million have been moved from Waigani to Bereina in Central Province.

Initially the materials were meant for the upgrading of the Bereina court house.

Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia says: “What we’ve done is we’ve decided to help the police upgrade the police station first using some of that material because we’re talking about something like K3 million worth materials, a lot of which are new from the dismantled buildings from this place.

Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia said this today when presenting to the Government house the 2016 Annual Judges’ report.

The compilation and presentation of the judges’ annual reports is a requirement of the constitution.

Contents of the report will not be disclosed until it is presented in parliament, but Sir Salamo said one of the things that is being addressed in the report, which was not done in previous reports, is the identification of some of the impediments that exist within the administration of the judiciary.

For the 2018 Budget, the Judiciary was allocated K80 million.

Chief Justice, Sir Salamo Injia, said this means the building will not be completed next year but will be at very advanced stages of the construction, come November next year.

“They decided to give us only K80 million for next year, obviously our objective will not be achieved but that is a matter for the government, and the judiciary respects the decision of the executive government given the tough economic times that the country is facing.

Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia made this known after the swearing in ceremony of one judge and four acting judges at the Government house today.

With the new judges sworn in, he said the judiciary is confident it will comfortably address the backlog of cases and hopes to dispose Election Petition cases by June next year. 

Among those sworn in today was the former Public Solicitor and a committal court magistrate.

Former Public Solicitor and now Justice Jim Wala Tamate will remain at Waigani. He will assist Justice David Cannings in the Human Rights track.

 A sad day indeed for the judiciary and members of the legal fraternity are deeply saddened at the untimely passing of the judge who was serving his second 10-year term as a National and Supreme Court judge.

Chief Justice, Sir Salamo Injia has released an official statement regarding the death, extending the judiciary’s condolence to his wife, Sandy Lenalia, children and relatives.

The late judge passed on today at 1:30am from the Pacific International Hospital after suffering from a heart attack. He was medevac to Port Moresby on Saturday.

Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia presented the report to Governor-General Bob Dadae today at the government house.

He said the judiciary would want to see the report tabled in parliament, through the office of the speaker, for debate because that is the only avenue for the courts to report on its activities to the public and the people of Papua New Guinea.

He said the judiciary received the biggest number of election petitions from 2012, over 106 petitions.

Last year, during 2016 Pacific Judicial Conference, Sir Salamo said 109 election petitions were filed from 2012 elections during one of his presentations on the Quality of Justice in the Pacific.

“The judiciary has cleared all election petitions 12 months before the issue of writs and we have also cleared the reviews in the Supreme Court arising from election petitions,” he said today.

This was made known by Chief Magistrate Nerrie Eliakim recently to Loop PNG.

The country’s Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia also said this in Wewak during the ground breaking of the new Wewak Sub Regional Complex.

Sir Salamo said both the high and low courts have been assisted by the government but a huge share of the budget has gone to the higher judiciary.

“The lower courts seem to be struggling and the Chief Magistrate only last week gave a full account on the state of affairs in terms of budget support in the lower judiciary.