The Supreme Court is the final court, so any power to revisit its own decision is guarded. Order 11 Rule 32 provides a narrow one and hedges it with three conditions.
Order 11 Rule 32
(1) An application of any nature made after disposal of a proceeding shall be filed and served in writing within 21 days of the order disposing of the proceeding.
(2) A ‘slip rule’ application shall set out the nature of the slip and the finding that the applicant contends the Court should have made.
(3) A ‘slip rule’ application shall not be listed for hearing before the Court unless a Judge of the Court making the order from which the application arises, or that Court, has granted leave for the application to proceed.
Each is a separate hurdle
Time. Filed and served in writing within 21 days of the order disposing of the proceeding. The period runs from the order, not from when the slip was noticed.
Content. Sub-rule (2) requires two things: the nature of the slip, and the finding that the applicant contends the Court should have made. An application that identifies a problem without stating the correction sought does not comply.
Leave. The application shall not be listed for hearing unless leave to proceed has been granted by a Judge of the Court making the order, or by that Court. Not any Judge — a member of the bench that decided the matter, or the bench itself.
It means the application is screened by someone who knows what the Court decided and why. A party using the slip rule to re-argue the appeal will not get past it.
The kinds of error covered
Arithmetic and calculation. A figure wrongly totalled; interest computed from the wrong date.
Names, dates and descriptions. A party misnamed; a wrong date in the order; the wrong proceeding number.
An order that does not reflect the reasons. Reasons allowing an appeal in part, with an order allowing it in full or dismissing it.
An omission. Costs dealt with in the reasons but not in the order; a consequential order the reasons plainly required.
An internal inconsistency between different parts of the order.
Disagreement with the result. The slip rule is not an appeal against the Supreme Court to itself.
An argument not put. A point counsel failed to take is not a slip.
Evidence not led. Additional evidence is governed by Order 7 Division 20, and the application must be made in the appeal, not after it.
A finding said to be wrong. Sub-rule (2) requires the applicant to state the finding the Court should have made, but that is the correction of a slip in expression — not an invitation to reopen the merits.
How to frame the application
1. Identify the order and its date, and show that you are within 21 days.
2. State the slip precisely — quote the passage of the order or reasons, and say what is wrong with it.
3. State the finding contended for — the corrected order, drafted in full, so the Court can simply adopt it.
4. Ask for leave to proceed under sub-rule (3), addressed to a Judge of the Court that made the order or to that Court.
Support it with an affidavit exhibiting the order and the reasons. Order 13 Rule 15 requires applications for interlocutory orders to be in Form 4 with a concise statement of the Court’s jurisdiction; where no form is prescribed, Order 11 Rule 9 allows an application to a Judge for directions.
Rule 32(1) is wider than the slip rule
Sub-rule (1) is not confined to slips. Any application made after disposal — about the form of the order, about costs not dealt with, about a consequential direction — must be filed and served in writing within 21 days.
Only sub-rules (2) and (3) are specific to slip rule applications. So an application about costs does not need leave under sub-rule (3), but it does need to be within the 21 days.
Order 12 Rule 5(3) is a useful reminder here: the Court may make a costs order of the kinds listed in Rule 5(2) at any time, whether or not an order that costs be paid to a person has previously been made or entered.
If one is made against you
Was it filed and served within 21 days of the order disposing of the proceeding? Sub-rule (1) is expressed as a requirement, and the period runs from the order.
Does it comply with sub-rule (2)? An application that does not state both the nature of the slip and the finding contended for is not a compliant slip rule application.
Is it really a slip? Where the application seeks to reopen a finding, say so at the leave stage under sub-rule (3). Leave is the point at which a disguised re-argument should be stopped, and it is decided by a Judge of the bench that made the order.
Where the slip is genuine and the correction obvious — a mis-stated figure, a party misnamed — consent to it. Opposing an obvious correction gains nothing and costs something.
If it is not a slip
There is no appeal from the Supreme Court. Section 155 of the Constitution makes it the final court of appeal, and section 155(2)(b) confers an inherent power to review all judicial acts of the National Court — the National Court, not itself.
An application to review a decision of the Supreme Court is genuinely exceptional. See reviewing a Supreme Court decision.
Sources
- Supreme Court Rules 2012 — O 7 rr 52–59; O 11 rr 9, 32; O 12 r 5; O 13 r 15
- Constitution of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea — s 155
- Supreme Court Act (Chapter 37) — ss 6, 16
Before relying on anything here, read the current text of the Supreme Court Rules 2012 and check for later amendments. 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.