Satto v Nauru Lands Committee [1988] SPLawRp 48; [1988] SPLR 213 (23 June 1988)

[1988] SPLR 213

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF NAURU

SATTO

v

NAURU LANDS COMMITTEE & OTHERS

Donne C.J.
23 June 1988

Administrative law — judicial review — whether a superior court which does not have a specialist jurisdiction can review by certiorari an inferior tribunal which has an exclusive specialist jurisdiction.

Administrative law — prerogative writs — order of certiorari — whether Supreme Court can review Nauru Lands Committee.

Pleading and practice — Crown practice — order for certiorari — whether superior court can issue order for certiorari for removal of proceedings from lower court with exclusive, specialist jurisdiction.

Customary law — land law — specialist land tribunal concerned with customs and usages — staffed only by native residents as arbiters of custom — whether such customary dispute resolution should be subject to review by certiorari issuing from superior court.

The applicant, Domingko Satto, was the alleged owner of an estate in land known to him as Yenumwar. On three occasions—in 1938, 1958, and 1970—the Nauru Lands Committee published decisions regarding the ownership of land registered as Aminwen 59. In 1982, the applicant learned that the land known to him as Yenumwar was also the land registered as Aminwen 59 and ownership ascribed to others. It is now accepted that Yenumwar is a distinct parcel of land, and that Yenumwar was mistakenly included in the registration of Aminwen 59. The applicant now seeks an order of certiorari to quash the 1958 decision of the Nauru Lands Committee, thereby restoring applicant's rights to Yenumwar.

As the Nauru Lands Committee has exclusive jurisdiction to resolve disputes concerning Nauruan lands, the capacity of the Supreme Court to review decisions of that Committee arose as a preliminary question.

HELD:

(1) Before a superior court can issue an order for certiorari, it must itself have original jurisdiction to deal with and determine the matter in issue.
(2) The Nauru Lands Committee is a specialist tribunal, administering local customary land law, a jurisdiction not enjoyed by the Supreme Court.
(3) The Supreme Court cannot issue an order of certiorari to the Nauru Lands Committee.

Other cases referred to in judgment:
Dibebe Beijouw v. Deireragea and Others Land Appeal No. 20 of 1970
Longbottom v. Longbottom (1852) 8 Ex. 203, 155 ER 1320
R. v. Chancellor of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich Diocese, ex p. White [1948] 1 KB 195; [1947] 2 All ER 170 CA) affirming [1947] 1 KB 263; [1946] 2 All ER 604
R. v. Electricity Commissioners [1924] 1 KB 171