Supreme Court

The Supreme Court gave Nepo until July 22 to prepare appeal books and also obtain the National Court audio transcripts from May 5.

Nepo’s appeal is challenging the decision of the National Court, which was handed down by Justice Collin Makail on May 5, quashing his appointment as acting Commissioner and reinstating Michael Waipo as Correctional Service Commissioner.

On June 24, a three-judge Supreme Court bench dismissed an application filed by Nepo seeking to stay that National Court decision and reinstate him to office as Commissioner Correctional Service.

The case returned for directions on Thursday afternoon before Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia.

He directed parties in the case to return to court on Monday, July 18, and settle index books in the appeal before a hearing date is allocated for the appeal to be heard.  

Leave was granted by a three-judge Supreme Court bench on June 21 to hear the appeal. A stay was also granted on that day against the decision of the National Court on March 1, dismissing his judicial review.

Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia dismissed the appeal on Thursday. However, he said the Ombudsman Commission is at liberty to file a Supreme Court review of the National Court’s decision of Jan 28, 2015.

He said if a review is filed by the Ombudsman, it will be determined on its merits.

The Ombudsman’s appeal was dismissed after the court was told that the documents for the appeal could not be located in the registry, despite a Supreme Court reference number or court file number being given for the case on March 6, 2015.

Speaking to the media outside the Waigani Court house today, Basil said this win is about democracy and respect for the constitution.

Basil made the comments soon after the high court ruled in favour of the Opposition’s application and ordered the Speaker to recall Parliament within 5 days, from today, to debate the no-confidence motion against the Prime Minister.

“We are talking about respect for the office of the Prime Minister, not you, the person occupying the position,” he said.

A three-man Supreme Court bench upheld the National Court decision after a long court battle of seven years.   

Clan representative, Daure Gabe Pundi, said they had been in court since 2009 and the decision of the Supreme Court dismissing the appeal of the National Court’s decision was a relief.

“We wasted a lot of money, a lot of time but we knew it was our land so sacrificed everything and came to court.  We are happy now,” said Pundi. 

Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia told lawyer representing the Chief Migration officer and Minister for Immigration, Laias Kandi, to produce a list of all transferees to Manus. The list should indicate their names, individual status of each transferee and also the date they arrived in Manus.

The instructions came from the Chief Justice as a way forward to see if any steps have been taken in adhering to court orders issued on April 26, which was in the Namah-filed Supreme Court reference regarding the regional processing centre.

Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia yesterday afternoon granted the joinder of all asylum seekers who are parties to two proceedings currently before the Supreme Court.  

Although the orders issued yesterday cover those who are part of the cases as parties, the case filed by Namah covers over 900 transferees who were brought to PNG against their will to be processed in Manus. 

Lawyer representing 300 of those asylum seekers, who are part of the two court cases, was in court yesterday when the orders were granted.

The Supreme Court will hear and determine the consolidated review that has four applications filed before it proceeds to hearing the substantive issue. Each party in the case has filed two applications.

The matter came for directions today where Chief Justice, Sir Salamo Injia directed Supreme Court registry to prepare the appeal books.

Parties are expected to file extracts of arguments by next Monday (June 26).

 The matter was set for hearing today by the High Court after the National Capital District Commission filed an appeal challenging that payment.

The damage payment stems from a breach of contract between NCDC and Yama Securities more than 16 years ago.

The National Court on March 2, ordered NCDC to pay Yama Security Services (YSS) Ltd a total of K17,871,510 in damages for breaching a contract. The case had been in court since 1999.

Justices David Cannings, Allen David and Hitelai Polume-Kiele reserved their decision on the matter to next week after hearing lengthy submissions from parties involved in the case today.

Namah is the referrer; members of the tribunal are the first defendants, the public prosecutor the second defendant, the Ombudsman Commission the third while the Chief Justice is the fourth defendant.