The District Court’s criminal jurisdiction is local. A charge heard in the wrong place is heard without jurisdiction, so the venue rules in section 122 are not a formality.
The basic rule
Subject to this Part, informations of simple offences shall be heard and determined at a place appointed for holding court within the province in which the offence or breach of duty was committed or in which the defendant usually resides or is at the time when the information is laid.
There are three permissible provinces, and the prosecution may choose among them. The place within the province must be one appointed for holding court under section 17. The Magistrates’ Manual notes that a District Court has generally been proclaimed for each province, so “the province” and “the area for which the Court is established” usually coincide.
The exceptions
| Situation | Rule | Provision |
|---|---|---|
| Offence committed outside a province but within 33 km of its boundary | May be heard in that province or in the province where it was committed | s 122(2) |
| Offence committed on a vessel within the territorial sea | May be heard at any place in the country appointed for holding court | s 122(3) |
| Defendant consents | May be heard at any place in the country appointed for holding court | s 122(3) |
| Offence against a law relating to companies | May be heard in the province where the company’s registered office is, or at Port Moresby | s 122(4) |
| Section 420 indictable offence triable summarily | Must be heard by a Court constituted by a Principal Magistrate, at such time and place as the Court determines | s 122(5)–(6) |
Section 13 of the Interpretation Act provides that a distance for the purposes of a statute is measured in a straight line on a horizontal plane, so the 33 kilometres are measured on the map, not by road.
Moving the hearing to a more convenient place
Where an information may lawfully be heard at any one of two or more places, if on the hearing at one of those places it appears to the Court that the hearing would more conveniently take place at another of those places, the Court may (a) adjourn the matter to that other place; and (b) commit the defendant in the meantime or discharge him on bail on recognizance conditioned for his appearance there, and the defendant and every witness summoned is bound to attend at that time and place.
This is the power to send a case from, say, the provincial capital to the district station nearer the witnesses. Notice that it operates only between places where the charge could lawfully have been heard in the first place.
Committals and remote offences
Section 122 is in Part VII and applies to simple offences and Schedule 2 offences. Committal proceedings under Part VI have their own rule. Section 115 provides that where a person is charged before a Court with an indictable offence alleged to have been committed in a place remote from it, the Court receives whatever evidence is produced and, if it is sufficient, proceeds to commit. If the evidence is not sufficient, section 116 allows the Court to bind over the witnesses it has examined and send the defendant by warrant, or on bail, to a Court in or near the place of the offence or where the other witnesses are, transmitting the information and depositions with him. Section 117 makes those depositions part of the case in the receiving Court.
Civil complaints
Venue for a civil complaint is governed by section 21(5), not section 122: the defendant’s residence or place of business, or where the cause of action arose, must be within the area for which the Court is constituted. Section 150 gives a defendant brought to the wrong Court a way of objecting before evidence is called. See which District Court do I sue in.
Taking the point
A venue objection is a jurisdictional objection and should be raised at the first appearance, before the plea. Section 9 presumes that an act done before a magistrate was within jurisdiction in the absence of proof to the contrary, so the defendant will need to show where the offence occurred and where he or she lives. A defendant who pleads and takes part in the hearing without objection may be taken to have consented under section 122(3), which allows a charge to be heard anywhere with the defendant’s consent.
The remedy for a conviction entered in the wrong province is an appeal to the National Court, which can quash the conviction or remit the case to a competent Court under section 230(1)(d).
Traffic infringement summonses
Section 121A provides that Part VII, including section 122, does not apply to proceedings commenced by a Traffic Infringement Summons. Those follow the separate procedure in section 132A, which fixes the Court in the summons itself and requires the case to be called on the first sitting day after 14 days from service if the sum specified has not been paid.
The District Courts Act is not on PacLII; it is available 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.