The High Court of Fiji has ordered imprisoned former member of Parliament Salote Radrodro to pay the Attorney-General $2000 in costs after her application for a constitutional redress (CR) was refused and described as an abuse of process.
Justice Deepthi Amaratunga noted in his April 12 ruling that Radrodro has an appeal already filed in the Appeals Court on her 36-month jail term that was handed down by the Anti-Corruption Division of the High Court in November, 2022.
Radrodro’s case was on a claim that the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption’s entire case against her was unconstitutional and invalid.
“It is clear that the orders sought in this CR clearly interferes with the pending appeal before Court of Appeal filed by plaintiff (Ms Radrodro). On that basis alone this application is an abuse,” stated Justice Amaratunga.
“It is an abuse of process to file parallel proceedings by way of CR, for denial of fair trial when the same issue is pending in the Court of Appeal.
“There are many litigants awaiting hearing of their actions or appeals by the court due to overloading of cases and limited resources available for disposal of such matters.
“This overload will get further aggravated if parallel CR is allowed.”
