By PNG Echo
A three-man bench of the Supreme Court, earlier today, unanimously overturned a National Court decision by Justice Colin Makail to join police officers Gitua and Damaru to the judicial review of Chief Magistrate, Nerrie Eliakim’s decision to grant an arrest warrant against Prime Minister, Peter O’Neill.
Justices Kandakasi, Hartshorn and Kassman found that Justice Makail was wrong and had fallen into error in granting Damaru and Gitua, as members of the police force, leave to act outside of their chain of command in joining them, independently, to the judicial review.
In their judgment they affirmed that:
The proper person to be a party to a judicial review proceeding on behalf of the Police Force …is the Police Commissioner.
And the Police Commissioner was already a party to these proceeding.
The bench were troubled by Mr Damaru’s admission that his and the interests of the Police Commissioner were different ”
because he wanted the arrest warrant executed but the Police Commissioner did not.
The learned judges gave their binding legal opinion that a police officer is not entitled to execute a warrant against the wishes of the Police Commissioner by way of a court proceeding.
Clearly, this bench of the Supreme Court would not entertain the courts being used in this manner by maverick police officers.
They went on:
Further, that a police officer wishes to execute an arrest warrant against the wishes or orders of the Police Commissioner raises issues as to why that Police Officer is of that view and believes he has such a particular interest in executing the warrant that he seeks court enforcement, against the position taken by the Police Commissioner.
I have a theory on that: could it be that their successes in the courts of Justice Colin Makail have led them into that error – that his errors have been instrumental in fostering the belief that the zealotry and insubordination of these officers is a reasoned response? The Supreme Court begs to differ.
Stay tuned: tomorrow, I will explore that theory further
