Court revokes warrant

By BOURA GORUKILA
WAIGANI District Grade Five Court Magistrate Dessie Magaru has ruled in favour of Department of Agriculture and Livestock secretary Daniel Kombuk’s application to set aside a court order and revoke a search warrant issued against him on Jan 16 and conducted on Jan 20.
The grounds were based on the magistrate who had granted the search warrant was not a principal magistrate.
Magistrate Magaru ruled that the search warrant be revoked and the documents obtained during the search on Jan 20 be returned.
She made the ruling after an application and a notice of motion seeking orders to revoke the search warrant issued to search the Department of Agriculture and Livestock and Department of Personnel Management (DPM).
She informed the court that if a search warrant was addressed to the grade five court and filed at Waigani, a grade five magistrate had to grant the search warrant orders.
“There are two levels of magistrates in a district court, a magistrate and a principal magistrate,” she said.
“The principal magistrate has jurisdiction to hear schedule two cases under the criminal code.
“The second category of magistrates are ones that hear summary offences.
“In this case, the documents were addressed to the grade five court, however, the magistrate who signed the documents was not a principal magistrate, thus, invalidating the process.”
Kombuk’s lawyer Alice Kimbu raised issues in court as to whether the complaint was criminal or civil in nature, whether the information granted in the search warrant was lawful, whether or not the search in the DPM office was lawful, whether there were reasonable grounds to grant search warrant orders, whether the search warrant granted on Jan 16 and conducted on Jan 20 was lawful and whether the magistrate who granted the orders was a principal magistrate.
Kimbu claimed that the search warrant was conducted on Jan 20 where police obtained documents vital to allegations levelled against Kombuk.
She argued that the search warrant and court order issued was defective on the grounds that there was no information and no affidavit in support when the search warrant was conducted, which was a breach of section 6 of the Search Act.
Magistrate Magaru, in response, said all other issues raised satisfied the court and were lawful. But the issue on whether or not the magistrate who granted the orders was a principal magistrate failed and invalidated the process and therefore ruled in favour of Kombuk.