State wants GCC case struck out
Monday August 27, 2007

The State wants to stop an application made today by former executives of the Great Council of Chiefs who are seeking constitutional redress against their suspension.

Lawyer Adish Narayan said he would apply for a strike out of the case brought by suspended GCC chair Ratu Ovini Bokini and his deputy Ratu Sakiusa Makutu in the High Court today.

He questioned the validity of the GCC executive's appointment and said that their lawyer had not properly filed the matter for constitutional redress.

Narayan argues that Ratu Ovini and Ratu Sakiusa were appointed by the various Fijian Affairs Ministers in the deposed Laisenia Qarase Government rather then the Fiji President as constituted in the Fijian Affairs Act.

He said that according to the Act, only the President can nominate, elect and appoint GCC members and set the numbers needed for the council.

"They had usurped the powers of the authority of that matter, that this the President of Fiji," he said.

Meanwhile, legal papers filed in the High Court this morning by GCC lawyer Savenaca Komaisavai also sought to halt a review of the GCC announced by the interim Fijian Affairs Minister Epeli Ganilau.

Komaisavai argues that Ratu Epeli does not have the powers to instigate the review.