THE ruling on the legal issue regarding the curfew regulations in terms of the COVID-19 issued by the Prime Minister will be made on April 29.
This ruling will determine the outcome of the case of the three young men who denied breaching the curfew and that of the other 60 individuals who also face similar offences.
The submissions were made before Chief Magistrate Emma Garo, Wednesday.
Public Solicitor Howard Lawry raised the legal issue regarding the wording used in Regulation 12 (1) of the Emergency Powers (COVID-19) 2020 which provides for the Restriction of Movement.
This is as to whether or not the wording of “A person” under Clause 4 (1) of the Emergency powers (COVID-19 includes the whole population.
Prosecution submits that section 10 (b) of the interpretation and General Provisions Provision’s Act (Cap 85) states that, “Words in the singular includes plural and words in plural includes singular”.
The prosecution further submitted that the words “a person” means “ any person”.
“If for instance, a law states that “if a person must”, then that means every/all “a person” to whom the particular law applies “must”.
“Crown further submits that basic statutory interpretation rules plus principles of plain English (which require drafting to be in 3rd person singular, present tense and active mood) apply.
“In other Commonwealth legislation including Australia and New Zealand, ‘A person’ has been used instead of “any person”.”
Public Prosecutor Dalcy Belapitu is appearing for the Crown for this matter.
The defence raised the legal issue after the three men pleaded not guilty to the charge of restriction of movement contrary to section 4 (1) (3) as read with section 12 of the Emergency Powers (COVID-19) Regulations 2020.
Two others, a male and female have already pleaded guilty to the charge and are waiting for sentence pending the outcome of this ruling.
These five men were accused of breaching the curfew issued by the prime minister on April 10.
They were released on principal bail of $500.00 on Tuesday after spending four nights inside the cells at Central Police Station.
The court had on Saturday made orders for them to be remanded at the Rove Correctional Centre.
That, however, did not happen as they were instead sent back to the cells at the Central Police Station.
The accused said they slept on the floor inside the cells since their arrest on April 10 and were given a biscuit each in the mornings and two biscuits in the evenings for each day.
This issue only came to the court’s attention on Tuesday.
Ms Garo therefore summoned the Commissioner of the Correctional Service of Solomon Islands (CSSI) Gabriel Manelusi to court yesterday afternoon to explain why the CSSI failed to comply with the orders of the court issued on Saturday.
Manelusi, however, said this case was not brought to his attention and that if it had they would be brought to the Rove Correctional Centre.
He said he will be conducting an internal investigation into this issue.
Ms Garo asked him to prepare a report as to why the court should not refer his officers responsible to show cause as to why they should not face contempt of court.
That report was handed to the court yesterday by Manelusi.
Meanwhile, the other 58 individuals who face similar offences for allegedly breaching the curfew on April 10 and April 11 were released by the court on Tuesday.
This was after the police and prosecution failed to file their charges to the court on Tuesday.
This group of people have been waiting around the court premise since 9am for their case.
Ms Garo by 2pm upon seeing that there were still no charges filed by the police and prosecution at the Magistrate’s court registry office released all of them.
She said the court will deal with their case as and when the police file the charges.
By ASSUMPTA BUCHANAN
