The Land Titles Commission was created by the Land Titles Commission Act 1962 as a Quasi-judicial Tribunal, initially to deal with disputes concerning all customary land. Its jurisdiction was very wide and in respect to customary land it had the exclusive jurisdiction to hear all land dispute matters concerning customary land. That jurisdiction was taken away by the enactment of the Land Disputes Settlement Act 1975 which took away its entire jurisdiction over all customary land and given it to Local Land Courts, District Land Courts and Provincial Land Courts which were established under the same Statute. It now only deals with customary land by invoking Section 4 of Land Disputes Settlement Act 1975, by the Head of State publishing Notice in the National Gazette which operates to effectively takes away the jurisdiction from the Land Courts System created under the Land Disputes Settlement Act 1975 over land disputes concerning customary land and placing it under the Land Titles Commission. That is how the Land Titles Commission gets to hear the customary land disputes in the Economic Impact Projects Areas.

LTC Contact

PO Box 815
PORT MORESBY, NCD
General Enquiries: 323 1927/3251491
Fax:   325 8755
Email: LandTitles@justice.gov.pg  

Lands Tribunal Services

Goal

To provide effective process of settling land disputes, to decide on settlement payments over national land, and decide applications for customary land tenure conversions

Objectives

  • Determine and settle ownership rights and settlement payments over land in Papua New Guinea
  • Maintain register of all national land and land tenure conversion in Papua New Guinea

Priority Action Areas

  • Appoint additional commissioners in order to deal effectively with the substantial backlog of outstanding land cases
  • Effective participation in the planning and restructure of the National Lands Commission and the Land Titles Commission in line with the NEC-endorsed recommendations of the Minister’s White Paper
  • Register, secure and archive all files and documents of the commissions and implement a sound, long-term solution to preserve copies of these documents

Acting Chief Commissioner – LTC

Kutt Paonga