Industry’s official allowed to be party in case

THE National Court has allowed acting general secretary of the Oil Palm Industry Corporation (Opic) Kepson Pupita to be a party to a case seeking judicial review over the removal of the board chairman.
The court was told that Opic board chairman Stuart Tatauro was removed by Agriculture and Livestock Minister John Simon for disobeying his directives in a letter on March 30 to have Leslie Wungen reinstated as acting general secretary.
Justice David Cannings also removed former general secretary Wungen from the proceedings.
Cannings yesterday granted leave to the lawyer representing the Opic board to have the originating summons amended to include the changes.
The hearing of the leave application filed by the Opic board seeking a judicial review of Simon’s decision has been adjourned to Friday.
Opic board is seeking a judicial review over the decision by Simon which directed the Opic board to reinstate Wungen and failure to adhere would cause termination of Opic board of directors.
The Opic board argued that the matter raised by Simon to have Wungen reinstated had already been dealt with in a separate court proceeding.
The court had dismissed the case because Wungen did not have legal standing to pursue the matter, that his term had expired and he had reached retirement age.