House favours bill to have separate judges
THE National and Supreme courts will have separate judges sitting on benches of the two high courts. Parliament gave its first approval with an 85-0 vote for the bill relating to the appointment of separate and distinct judges to sit on the Supreme Court and National Court separately. The amendments, tabled by Esa’ala MP Moses Maladina, stated that unlike other jurisdictions, “in PNG we have both judges presiding over both the National and Supreme courts”. “This is not only inconvenient but also gives rise to the issue of capacity. “We have come to a stage where the population has increased and are at a stage of development now where we require a separate and distinct Supreme Court with fulltime judges and a separate and distinct National Court with its own judges,” he said. Mr Maladina said the amendments had been made in consultation with the Attorney-General and with the Chief Justice. He said this was also in line with the law and justice sector white paper t