Papua New Guinea has about a thousand Village Courts, established under section 172 of the Constitution and the Village Courts Act 1989, staffed by community members without legal training, applying custom and mediation. The District Court is the formal court closest to them, and the Act makes it their supervisor, their appeal court and the gatekeeper for their harsher orders.
What Village Courts do
The Magistrates’ Manual summarises their powers: compensation, debt and damages orders up to K1,000 under section 45; temporary use of customary land under section 43; preventive orders under section 51; custody of children of customary marriages under section 47; bride price compensation under section 46; and the offences prescribed by the Village Courts Regulation under section 41. They must attempt mediation first under section 53, apply custom under section 57, and disregard technical rules of evidence under section 59 while observing natural justice. They cannot deal with motor vehicle disputes or land ownership, cannot imprison, and cannot be attended by lawyers. Their fines and community work orders are enforced only through the District Court.
Endorsement of fines and execution orders
An order of a Village Court for payment of a fine, and an order for execution to enforce a compensation, debt or damages order, is of no force and effect unless and until a District Court Magistrate endorses it. Each section sets out criteria the magistrate must consider before endorsing. Where an execution order is endorsed, the District Courts Act procedures for execution apply.
The Manual instructs magistrates to consider carefully the background of the order before endorsing: whether the Village Court was properly constituted, whether the party was present or lawfully proceeded against in absence under section 79, whether the order was within jurisdiction, and whether the amount is within the limits. Endorsement is a judicial act, not a rubber stamp. Re Kabia Maris and Nalik Village Court (1994) N1263 shows what happens when it is treated as one: a District Court magistrate endorsed a warrant of commitment two days before the Village Court summons was even issued, for failure to pay a debt of which most had already been paid. Doherty J held the Village Court had acted outside its jurisdiction and that “the learned Magistrate was equally at fault in signing a Warrant of Commitment two days before the summons was even issued”, and ordered release.
Appeals and reviews
Appeals from Village Court orders lie to the District Court within three months, extendable to twelve. A magistrate may also review a Village Court decision on his own motion or on a supervising magistrate’s reference. Section 89 requires the magistrate to appoint two or more Village Court magistrates to sit with him to advise on custom; section 90 lets him proceed alone if they do not attend and lets him receive such evidence and make such inquiries as he thinks necessary; section 92 confines the options to confirming, quashing or remitting the order. The record of the decision goes to the Provincial Supervising Magistrate, who may conduct a further review. See appealing a Village Court decision.
Supervision
A District Court magistrate may be appointed a Provincial Supervising Magistrate or Deputy Provincial Supervising Magistrate, with a supervisory role over the Village Courts of the province.
The Manual describes no formal procedure; supervision means visiting, inspecting records, advising personnel, and referring problems for review. It gives a checklist of what the supervising magistrate should look for.
| Area | What is checked |
|---|---|
| Constitution | Compliance with ss 37, 42 to 49, 51 to 53: no imprisonment, no forced labour, no discriminatory custom, no orders such as forcing a wife to return to her husband |
| Natural justice | Notice of the charge or claim, a chance to answer, the right to question witnesses, no interested magistrate; s 79 on absent parties |
| Jurisdiction | Only prescribed offences; K1,000 limit; no land ownership or motor vehicle matters; mediation attempted first |
| Records | s 84: records of proceedings kept and certified; s 110 offence of altering records; forms and safe storage |
| Custom | Custom recorded and applied consistently with the Constitution and the Customs Recognition Act |
| Women | Whether women are treated differently from men; Raramu |
When the Village Court goes wrong
A widow was imprisoned for six months by a Village Court for “going around” with another man. Doherty J held that a custom which is discriminatory contravenes the Constitution, is not part of the underlying law and is not enforceable; that a Village Court cannot convict for offences not provided for in the Village Court Regulations; and ordered her immediate release.
— National Court, PGNC 131 (1993)
Both Raramu and Kabia Maris reached the National Court on the judge’s inspection of prison records, not by any appeal. They illustrate the District Court’s gatekeeping failing, and the National Court’s inherent power under Constitution section 155(4) and section 57 filling the gap. The lesson the Manual draws for magistrates is that endorsement and supervision are the points at which such orders should be stopped.
Overlap with the District Court’s own jurisdiction
A matter within Village Court jurisdiction can often also be brought in the District Court, and the Manual notes that a final Village Court decision supports a plea of res judicata or autrefois convict elsewhere, except that an indictable offence may still be prosecuted in a higher court. Village Courts may also make interim family protection orders under section 12 of the Family Protection Act. A party unhappy with the choice of forum should raise it at the outset; the District Court will not ordinarily entertain a claim already decided by a Village Court unless the decision is quashed on appeal. See appealing a Village Court decision and customary land disputes.
The Village Courts Act 1989 is not available in full text on PacLII; section references are taken from the PNG Magistrates’ Manual (PacLII), chapter 18. The District Courts Act is on vLex.
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.