Village official raises concerns

National

A VILLAGE court official in Jiwaka suggests that summons served between a complainant and defendant living at different parts of a constituency should be referred to a centralised venue for hearing.
“This is for convenience of both the complainant and defendant to enable  village court officials to solve the matter quickly,” Bung Two deputy village court chairman Mequel Amdi said.
Amdi said it was a practice where matters  were hard to handle at village level or when the matters involved distance, a centralised location made sense.
He questioned the manner in which an instruction from provincial village court Inspector Joseph Opo came from village level in North Waghi district to Banz Urban for mention.
Phone calls made to Opo to verify the reasons for not permitting village court summons to be heard at Banz were not answered.
Amdi said on Monday, three summons involving distant parties in Jiwaka could not be brought to Banz for hearing because of the direction from the village court inspector.
“Banz has been a central and neutral venue for cases involving parties living far on each border of the district or province,” he said.