Lawyer: Contempt of court proceedings could be filed
CONTEMPT of court proceedings could be filed against the Fiji Labour Party (FLP) and Unity Fiji if the parties do not pay the costs they had been ordered to pay in their recent court proceedings, the High Court heard on Tuesday.
Lawyer Gul Fatima said this yesterday when FLP and Unity Fiji party applied to the court for an interim stay of the costs orders in favour of the Constitutional Offices Commission, the Speaker of Parliament, the Government and the AttorneyGeneral.
The lawyer for the political parties, Sevuloni Valenitabua, said the parties intended to appeal against the dismissal of their applications, which related to complaints they had against Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem.
He also said his clients were not prepared to pay the costs directly to the respondents but were willing to pay them into court.
Chief Justice Kamal Kumar told Mr Valenitabua that the political parties were suing the offices and not people and therefore they were not parties who would be unable to reimburse the costs if the political parties were successful on appeal to the Court of Appeal.
Ms Fatima said the costs were due to be paid to the defendants seven days after the judgment, on October 25 which was the Diwali public holiday, and the payments could have been made the following day but the stay application was filed instead.
She said she stood at liberty to enforce the orders, which could also come with other penalties including questions of contempt, and that Mr Valenitabua might consider that and advise his clients.
She also said she agreed with the Chief Justice that any order for costs in respect of the parties such as the respondents should be complied with and paid to those very parties.
When the matter was called for hearing yesterday Mr Valenitabua informed the court his clients would pay the costs directly to the respondents.
He said they were withdrawing the applications for stay of execution
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■ of orders and would proceed with their appeal to the Court of Appeal.
He asked if his clients could be given a maximum of seven days to pay the costs, as was allowed by the court when the orders were made.
Ms Fatima said it was in the best interests of the plaintiffs to comply with the orders of the court and pay the costs as soon as possible or she would have to look at other options for compliance.
The Chief Justice granted the parties leave to withdraw the applications.
No orders were made for costs in the matter.