Court to decide on stay order by NEC to appoint administrator

By KARO JESSE
THE Supreme Court in Waigani will tomorrow decide whether to discharge a stay order on the National Executive Council (NEC)’s decision to appoint Elvis Mark Balg as Western Highlands’ administrator.
Balg’s appointment as the administrator was enforced by a single judge of Supreme Court on April 15 after staying a National Court decision of March 29 which found his appointment to be unlawful for alleged serious issues surrounding the appointment.
The State appealed the National Court’s decision.
The State, through an application, stayed the National Court decision to a later date, and enforced NEC’s decision that appointed Balg pending determination of its appeal of the decision.
The stay order is now challenged by the Western Highlands executive council (PEC) through a Supreme Court motion seeking to discharge the stay order and the consequential orders which had allowed Balg to resume duties.
A three-man bench comprising justice Ellenas Batari, Justice Collin Makail and Justice Thomas Anis yesterday heard submissions from the parties.
Lawyer Priscilla Tamutai representing the PEC (second respondent) and lawyer Paul Mawa representing Western Highlands governor Paias Wingti (first respondent) and the former administrator Joseph Neng (third respondent), argued that the interim stay order and the consequential orders be discharged or if not varied as those orders touched on the substantive appeal.
They (respondents) argued that the application for stay by the State was made pursuant to Section 19 of the Supreme Court Act, which they claimed the orders were erroneously granted by the single Supreme Court judge.