Officers’ case to be heard

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By BOURA GORUKILA
THE Supreme Court will, on April 26, hear the application by two former senior police officers, Sylvester Kalaut and Fred Yakasa, challenging the competency of an appeal by the State and Police Commissioner David Manning to stay the court’s Jan 22 decision.
Justice Derek Hartshorn yesterday ruled that the application was good to go after refusing to entertain objections to the objection of competency by the State and the lawyer representing Manning.
He ordered all parties to file submissions on the matter by April 12.
He also ordered for a status conference to be held by all parties on April 19 before the case proceeded to hearing.
The matter is in relation to challenging the legality of Manning’s appointment as Police Commissioner which the National Court ruled that there was an error in his appointment by the Public Services Commission which overlooked Manning’s lack of required tertiary qualification.
But the Government appealed the court’s ruling at the Supreme Court and secured a stay on the decision.
Kalaut told The National outside court that they had filed the application to test whether the appeal was good to go and had adhered to the due processes of the law.
He said if the court dismissed the appeal, then the court’s orders on Jan 22 stood, where Manning was ordered to vacate the office by noon on Friday after Justice David Canning in the National Court upheld a judicial review application filed by Kalaut and Yakasa who had applied with Manning for the position in 2019.
The three were among the 18 candidates who had applied for the position.
Manning was appointed police commissioner on Dec 10, 2019, for a period of four years.