Sir Salamo: Judiciary gaining strength

THE Papua New Guinea judiciary is gradually expanding its strength to have 40 judges by 2015, Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia says.
Sir Salamo said the judiciary had increased its judge strength from 21 in 2006 to 30 this year as part of the judiciary’s corporate plan from 2006 to 2010 and the corporate plan from 2011 to 2015.
“Part of the plan is to expand the National Court to the provinces and districts,” he said in a statement.
“More than half of the judges are based in the provinces and that proportion is set to increase by 2015.”
Sir Salamo said other provinces would be considered for resident judges under the 2016 to 2020 corporate plan.“In the meantime, those provinces that do not have resident judges are catered for under the judiciary’s sub-registry roll-out programme under which court cases can be filed in those registries and dealt with by circuit judges,” he said.
“To bring effective service delivery to all levels of the courts in the country, enhancement of the courts’ capacity in terms of judicial manpower and court facilities has been given priority.”
He said preparations were under way for three new National Court establishments to be opened next year in Kavieng, Buka and Tari.
Since 2006, the National Court had been operating in seven provinces – Lae (Morobe), Mt Hagen (Western Highlands), Kokopo (East New Britain), Goroka (Eastern Highlands), Madang, Kimbe (West New Britain) and Wabag (Enga).