Supreme Court Reference No 1 of 2001: In the Matter of Section 18(1) of the Constitution of Papua New Guinea and In the Matter of Jim Kas, Governor, Madang Province (2001) SC670

• Jurisdiction: Papua New Guinea
• Citation: (2001) SC670
• Date: 28 June 2001
• Court: Supreme Court
• Year: 2001

Full Title: Supreme Court Reference No 1 of 2001: In the Matter of Section 18(1) of the Constitution of Papua New Guinea and In the Matter of Jim Kas, Governor, Madang Province (2001) SC670

Supreme Court: Kapi DCJ, Sheehan J, Salika J

Judgment Delivered: 28 June 2001

1 Constitutional Law—Whether a person may file a "reference" directly in the Supreme Court under Constitution s18(1)—A person may directly invoke the original jurisdiction of Supreme Court under s18(1) by appropriate cause of action under the law.

2 In the Matter of Hon Anderson Agiru MP (Unreported Judgment of the Supreme Court dated 21 December 2000), SCR No 4 of 1980; Re Petition of MT Somare (No 2) [1982] PNGLR 65, Re Michael Thomas Somare MP and Sir Julius Chan [1980] PNGLR 255, Isidore Kaseng v Rabbie Namaliu and The Independent State of Papua New Guinea (No 1) [1995] PNGLR 481 and The Hon John Momis and The Bougainville Provincial Government In Suspension v The National Executive Council and The Right Hon Bill Skate, The Prime Minister (1999) SC OS 1 of 1999 (Unnumbered and Unreported Judgment of the Supreme Court dated 26 November 1999)) referred to

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By the Court: Mr Jim Kas filed this proceeding by way of a reference under s18(1) of the Constitution on 11 January 2001. At the hearing, the question arose, whether, Mr Kas could institute the cause of action directly in the Supreme Court by way of a reference under s18(1) of the Constitution?

The Court expressed the desire at the outset that if parties could agree to convert or substitute the present proceeding with the appropriate originating process, we would be prepared to deal with the substantive constitutional issues. We adjourned this matter to the afternoon to enable parties to resolve this issue. However, the parties...