The National Court has ruled that the National Executive Council (NEC) had unlawfully suspended Fr Jan Czuba as the Department of Higher Education Research and Science Technology Department (DHERST) secretary two years ago.
Acting Judge Emma Wurr, in Waigani on Friday, said the Public Service Commission (PSC) recommended to the NEC to suspend Czuba without conducting their own investigation.
Judge Wurr said PSC was an independent agency which was not subjected to any external influence, however, in this case, PSC without its own investigation simply acted on the request by former DHERST minister Wesley Raminai, to suspend Czuba.
Therefore, PSC and the NEC had not followed the prescribed procedure involved in suspension, revocation and the appointment of departmental heads. The decision made in May, 2021 to suspend Fr Jan is ultra virus and void.
Emma Wurr, Acting National Court Judge
She further ordered that the appointment of Dr Francis Hualupmomi as the acting DHERST secretary at that time was also unlawful because NEC had appointed him without any recommendation from the PSC.
Czuba was suspended in May 2021 based on criminal allegations against him in relation to the online application school levers and the online selection system. He was acquitted by the National Court last year.
He then filed this proceeding, juridical review, against the decision of his suspension. Pending the proceeding on his suspension, he was then terminated.
Czuba then filed another juridical review application against the decision on his termination.
The court then put proceeding on his suspension on hold and dealt with the proceeding on the decision of his termination which resulted in his favor.
The court ordered that his termination was unlawful and Czuba to be reinstated.
Following this, the court then handed down the decision on the judicial review application against his suspension also in his favor