By JOSHUA ARLO
PNG Law Society president Kerenga Kua was nearly tossed out of Justice Bernard Sakora’s courtroom yesterday for “defying” directions and being “disrespectful”.
The incident occurred when Justice Sakora questioned Mr Kua the reason for his application to the Supreme Court to stay a six-month jail sentence imposed on his client, acting Solicitor-General Neville Devete, for contempt of court.
He said he had already suspended the sentence pending the disposal of the principal matter.
He questioned Mr Kua whether he still had jurisdictional powers to exercise in the matter since it would be returned to him.
Mr Kua replied that his client was only exercising his statutory right to appeal against the decision imposed on Oct 5.
Justice Sakora felt that Mr Kua did not respond to his question and warned the counsel that he would ban him from his court if he was “persistently defiant” of court directions.
He said lawyers should read judgments and transcripts because “more often than not, lawyers go running to court without reading judgments”.
Mr Devete was sentenced to six months’ jail by Justice Sakora for failing to comply with a directive to certify a certificate of judgment for an amount of $A4,941,250 million (K13,322, 882) for a claim made by two Australian businessmen against the State.
When Justice Sakora repeated his question, Mr Kua said a superior court had stayed the order and he therefore did not have jurisdictional powers in the matter any more.
Justice Sakora directed all parties to return tomorrow for further deliberation.