The Supreme Court in Waigani has upheld two of the seven grounds of the Attorney-General’s objection to competency application on the merits of the Opposition’s Vote of No Confidence (VONC) court matter, effectively dismissing the Opposition’s attempt to have parliament recalled immediately to deal with a VONC motion to elect a new Prime Minister.
The Chief Justice Sir Gibbs Salika, along with three judges on the five-men Supreme Court bench, ruled in favour of the Attorney-General, Pila Ninigi’s competency application which was argued last week.
The four judges conceded that the Supreme Court had no jurisdiction to intervene on Parliamentary procedures, basically, that the Supreme Court could not make a constitutional ruling or interpretation on the process of the VONC motion.
The four judges said this was because the Standing Orders used by the Parliamentary Business Committee (PBC) in relation to a VONC motion is purely procedural orders or rules and not constitutional laws.
Only Justice Derek Hartshorne was of the view that the A-G’s objection to competency should be dismissed as it was an abuse of court process.
Justice Hartshorn ruled that a full Supreme Court bench had already granted a legality declaration for the Opposition Leader Douglas Tomuriesa to bring about his VONC application in court.
In essence, Justice Hartshorn reasoned that for this court now to entertain the competency application, meant the A-G was asking the full court to go back and revisit its decision on declaration.
However, due to the bench majority upholding the two grounds in the competency application, the Opposition had its court matter dismissed.
Outside the courthouse, Opposition Leader Douglas Tomuriesa thanked the media, and the public for their support, but said due to the 4-1 decision against them, they will wait until the Parliament September session to take another stab at moving a motion of no confidence against the current Prime Minister.
Meantime, a happy Attorney General, Pila Niningi told media outside the court that it is time parliamentarians stop using the court to intervene in parliamentary processes and proceedings.