The Madang National Court has registered more than 600 outstanding bench warrant cases, many, dating back to 27-30 years ago.
Madang Resident Judge, Iova Geita, says these bench warrants are very old thus they are now trying to properly dispose of these cases upon application.
Justice Geita explains the Madang National Court is now hosting National Court sittings in the Districts so that court user forums can be conducted.
Justice Iova Geita says the court user forum is important in getting the law and justice agencies, community leaders, peace officers, magistrates, and the presidents engaged.
These participants can help the National Court arrest the bench warrants situation and clear the backlog of cases in the province.
The Madang National Court Judge and the law and justice sector were in Karkar island recently, to conduct a court sitting and held a court user forum on the island.
Karkar Island has about 32 outstanding bench warrant cases registered at the Madang National Courthouse.
Geita explains unlike the government business courts cannot right off files. Court files remain active until they are properly disposed of upon application.
Justice Geita says the courts are struggling to arrest the bench warrants cases not only in Madang but throughout the country as well.
The Madang National Court is now taking steps to engage all sectors to have all outstanding bench warrant cases arrested.
However, the chances of getting the bench warrants cases arrested remain challenging.
Geita says there are a lot of factors influencing the outcome of the protracted bench warrant in the court system.
But as the National Court takes its services down to the Districts, Justice Geita is urging law and justice agencies and support services like the CS and police to complement the national court.
So that hand in hand they can bring the national court services down to the districts.
