Most people who ever stand in a Papua New Guinea courtroom stand in a District Court. It is the court of first resort for police charges, small debts, family protection orders and a long list of other matters. This series works through the Act that governs it.
Where the Court comes from
Acts of the Parliament may establish, or provide for the establishment of, courts within the National Judicial System in addition to the Supreme Court and the National Court, and may define their powers, functions and jurisdictions and their relationship with other components of the System.
The Act that does this is the District Courts Act (Chapter 40). Under section 14 the Judicial and Legal Services Commission establishes a District Court for a specified area by proclamation in the National Gazette, and may abolish one the same way. In practice a District Court has been proclaimed for each province, sitting at the places appointed under section 17.
Section 155(1) of the Constitution lists the courts of the National Judicial System: the Supreme Court, the National Court, and the courts established under section 172. The District Court is in the third group. That placement matters, because section 155(3) gives the National Court an inherent power to review any exercise of judicial authority, and the District Court sits underneath it.
The magistrates who sit in it belong to the Magisterial Service, established by Constitution section 173 and organised by the Magisterial Service Act (Chapter 43). See who the magistrates are.
The District Courts Act
The Act is a long one. Its long title describes it as an Act to provide for the establishment of District Courts and their jurisdiction and proceedings. Its fifteen Parts run from the appointment of magistrates through to costs and securities, and this series follows that order.
| Part | What it covers |
|---|---|
| I–III | Definitions, magistrates, and the establishment and jurisdiction of the Courts (ss 1–27) |
| IV–V | Starting a case, summonses, warrants, and the hearing (ss 28–92) |
| VI | Committal proceedings and bail for indictable offences (ss 93–121) |
| VII–VIIA | Trials of simple offences and traffic infringement summonses (ss 122–132A) |
| VIII | Civil complaints, set-off and default summonses (ss 133–159) |
| IX–X | Enforcement, sentencing orders, and sureties of the peace (ss 160–218) |
| XI–XII | Appeals to the National Court, and the protection of magistrates (ss 219–259) |
| XIII–XV | Costs, securities and miscellaneous matters, including the regulation-making power (ss 260–278) |
The District Courts Act (Chapter 40) is not on PacLII. The text relied on throughout this series is the consolidation to No 8 of 2000, and the Act is available on vLex. The two amending Acts are on PacLII: the District Courts (Amendment) Act 2000, which is consolidated, and the District Courts (Amendment) Act 2009, which comes into operation only on a notice in the National Gazette and had not commenced when the consolidation was prepared.
What the Court does
Section 20 gives the Court its criminal jurisdiction and section 21 its civil jurisdiction. Everything else in the Act is machinery for exercising them.
| Function | Source | Where in this series |
|---|---|---|
| Trying simple offences | s 20(1)(a); Part VII | Simple offences |
| Trying the indictable offences in Schedule 2 of the Criminal Code summarily | s 20(1)(b); Criminal Code s 420 | Indictable offences triable summarily |
| Committing serious charges for trial in the National Court | Part VI | Committal proceedings |
| Bail in most cases | ss 104–110; Bail Act | Bail |
| Civil claims up to the money limit | ss 21–22; Part VIII | Civil jurisdiction |
| Enforcing its own orders | Part IX | Enforcement |
How it differs from the National Court
The National Court is a superior court of record with unlimited jurisdiction under Constitution sections 163 and 166. The District Court is neither. In The State v The Senior Stipendiary Magistrate; Ex parte the Acting Public Prosecutor [1976] PNGLR 344 the Supreme Court held that the District Courts are not courts of record but creatures of statute, and as such have only those powers vested in them by statute.
Three practical consequences follow. First, if the Act does not give the Court a power, the Court does not have it. Second, the Court cannot invent a procedure; where the Act is silent it borrows from the National Court under Regulation 46. Third, a magistrate who steps outside the Act acts without jurisdiction, and that is precisely what an appeal or a judicial review is designed to correct.
The reader who needs the National Court instead should start with the National Court’s jurisdiction, and the overview of the whole system is in what courts make up the National Judicial System.
A resource worth knowing
PacLII hosts the Papua New Guinea Magistrates’ Manual, a chapter-by-chapter guide written for magistrates on how the Act is meant to work in practice. It is not law, and parts of it are dated, but it is the closest thing to an official commentary on the District Court, and this series cites it where it helps.
Before relying on anything here, read the current text of the District Courts Act (Chapter 40) and check for later amendments. The Act is not on PacLII; the figures and time limits quoted in this series come from the consolidation to No 8 of 2000, and the District Courts (Amendment) Act 2009 changes some of them once it is brought into operation. If a decision matters to you, get advice — start with the Office of the Public Solicitor, or find a firm in the law firms directory.