Objection plea rejected

The National Main Stories

By KARO JESSE
THE Supreme Court on Friday dismissed an objection application filed by two former senior police officers against David Manning’s appointment as police commissioner.
A three-man bench – Justice Gavara-Nanu, Justice Allen Kingsley David and Justice Thomas Anis – dismissed the objection application filed by suspended assistant commisioner (human resources) Sylvester Kalaut and former deputy commisioner Fred Yakasa after finding that grounds raised in the objections were incompetent.
The State will now appeal a National Court decision that nullified Manning’s appointment.
The judges upheld submissions by state lawyer Troy Mileng from the office of the solicitor-general and lawyer Derek Wood of Ashurst Lawyers representing Manning.
Both lawyers, Mileng and Wood, submitted that the objection was defective and incompetent as:

  • IT (objection) did not state the jurisdiction basis to make the objection in respect of the competency of the appeal; and,
  • ALL grounds of the objection raised a similar claim that the grounds of the appeal, which did not state specifically the error of law or error of mixed fact and law, but the objections did not state the law that the grounds of the appeal offend against.

On the contrary, lawyer David Dotaona representing Kalaut and Yakasa contended that the objection was competent and proper before the court for consideration and determination.
Dotaona contended that the appeal should be dismissed because the grounds raised did not specifically state the error of law or the error of mixed fact or law committed by the National Court and that it (appeal) also carried new grounds which were never raised in the National Court.
The judges accepted the submissions by state lawyers that the grounds of appeal as pleaded met the requirements of Order 7 Rules 9(c) and 10 of the Supreme Court Rules and that the objection has no merit and the appeal is competent.
The judges refused to allow Kalaut and Yakasa to amend their objection to add a new grounds.
Manning’s appointment was found unlawful by the National Court on Jan 21 for lack of tertiary qualification.
The State is appealing the decision as it alleged that there was error of law and fixed fact committed by the National Court.