The proverb “Justice delayed is justice denied”, an old but a partial truth reflecting the darker areas of the judicial system will be the first task of Chief Justice Sir Gibbs Salika.
In an exclusive interview with the Post-Courier yesterday, Sir Gibbs said he has gone through all outstanding judgments by all judges and he will be privately speaking to the judges to ensure that all delayed judgments are completed and delivered.
“It’s a challenge to the judiciary for us to deliver justice services to our people in a timely manner.”
“Some of our judges have reserved decisions which have been outstanding for quite a long time and I’m already doing that, I’m beginning to see which judges have that long reserved list and I have plans for that and that is for these judges to be taken off the normal day to day work and for them to concentrate on finishing their long outstanding reserved decisions,” Justice Salika said.“They will work from the oldest reserved decisions dating back as far as six to five years to any current cases that they may have.”
He reiterated his earlier appeal for judges to have good work habits and work culture to complete these reserved judgments.
“Once it’s done, it takes the weight off their shoulders but most importantly parties involved are served,” he said.
He said all judges will be in Port Moresby at the end of the month for Supreme Court cases where he will call those that he had identified to his office and will talk to them privately to take time off and ensure that any outstanding reserved decisions are written and delivered accordingly. Apart from delayed reserved decisions, cases on the hearing list but are yet to be heard are also his priority.
“Those cases will have to be attended to as soon as possible. We have a fast-track list in which those waitlist cases will be put through that list so that they can be disposed off. I know among my brother and sister Judges who can move things quickly.
“I will ask those Judges to move and shake things so that these cases can be moved and completed as soon as possible,” he said.
The other plan to curb such delays will be for him to encourage mediation to cut down on these backlog of cases.
He said mediation is a good tool to have those cases disposed off quickly and have those matters resolved so people don’t have to write judgments. The parties are allowed to make their own decisions and they come back to court where the court will just endorse their agreed orders.
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