Lawyers not served court files

By CHARLES MOI
HEALTH Minister Jelta Wong, National Pandemic Response Controller David Manning and the Health secretary Dr Osborne Liko did not appear in the National Court on Thursday because their lawyer was not served the necessary court files.
Solicitor-General Tauvasa Tanuvasa, who represented Wong, Dr Liko and Manning, raised this issue when he appeared before Deputy Chief Justice Ambeng Kandakasi.
Justice Kandakasi was presiding over two cases, which questioned the constitutionality of the no-jab-no-job policy.
The first case was filed by employees of National Capital District commission (NCDC) challenging the legality of the no-jab-no-job policy imposed at the city hall.
City manager Bernard Kipit, Governor Powes Parkop and the NCDC were named as defendants.
The other case was filed by lawyer Baundo Francis, claiming that the no-jab-no-job policy was unconstitutional.
On Nov 16, Justice Kandakasi ordered for Wong, Dr Liko and Manning to appear in court.
When the case was mentioned on Thursday, Tanuvasa said his clients had been left in the dark concerning the no-jab-no-job case.
He said his clients found out that they were supposed to appear in court was when the story was published in the newspapers.
However, Francis said he had served documents to the defendants. But Tanuvasa said he did not receive any court documents.
Lawyer George Kaore, appearing for the NCDC workers, said he had served the court documents on a lawyer at the Department of Justice and Attorney-General. However Justice Kandakasi said Tanuvasa should have been served directly.
Justice Kandakasi told Francis and Kaore to serve the necessary court documents to Tanuvasa. The matter was adjourned to Dec 20.