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Appellant dismayed at inordinate delay in hearing of GCB matter

Dec 19, 2012 Sports

Dear Editor,
I pen this letter as an appellant in this matter. More than 6 months has elapsed since the Caribbean Court of Justice made certain Orders regarding the matter RAJENDRA SINGH & ROBIN SINGH v THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF GUYANA. This matter was challenging the Government of Guyana’s (GOG) authority and decision to unilaterally disband the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) and install an Interim Management Committee (IMC).
Hereunder is a brief summary of the various approaches to the Courts and the surrounding events over the past year:

Date Court Action Result
23/12/11   MINISTER OF SPORT writes the GCB disbanding the GCB & installing an IMC purportedly under the pretext that the Chief Justice had so stated in his ruling  
28/12/11 Supreme Court- Chief Justice Ex Parte motion by CHETRAM SINGH & LIONEL JAIKARAN(then Trustees of GCB)for an Order or Rule Nisi of Certiorari quashing the Minister’s decision above CJ ordered that the application be refused on 29/11/11 stating that the claimants had no locus standi because they were representing a body that was a legal non-entity. No written judgment given.
30/12/11 Full Court- Justices Ramlall & Bovell-Drakes) Ex Parte application was renewed as a fresh hearing by the said 2 Trustees On25/1/12 this motion was dismissed & an application to appeal to the Court of Appeal was refused stating it had no power to give leave to appeal to the COA.
30/1/12 Court of Appeal Motion for Leave to appeal the decision of the Full Court and for the application for leave to be treated as the hearing of the substantive appeal for the making of an Order Nisi for a writ of certiorari Motion dismissed on 14/2/12. No written reasons provided.
3/2/12 Caribbean Court of Justice(CCJ) The same 2 trustees above applied for special leave to appeal against the Court of Appeal’s judgment to hear any appeal to it in the matter. CCJ granted special leave to appeal and gave directions leading to the hearing of this appeal.
12/4/12 Caribbean Court of Justice Application for the substitution of the Applicants(Trustees) by the Appellants RAJENDRA SINGH & ROBIN SINGH in their capacity as authorized representatives of the GCB CCJ granted leave for such substitution. The standing of the Appellants has not been questioned in these proceedings before this Court.
11/6/12 Caribbean Court of Justice Appealing the Court of Appeal’s decision CCJ grants the Appellants an extension of time until 14 days from the delivery of this judgment to file a notice of appeal from the Order of Justice Chang of 29/12/11, providing the Appellants within 7 days of the delivery of this judgment file with the Registrar of the Supreme Court a motion seeking such an extension
15/6/12 Court of Appeal Appeal against the decision of the Chief Justice filed and request for hearing No date set yet for hearing
22/6/12   Letter written to Court of Appeal requesting early hearing and expressing the urgency of the matter  
18/7/12   Letter sent to the Chancellor’s Chambers requesting an early hearing  
19/7/12   Follow up letter sent to Court of Appeal requesting written response on the status of the appeal hearing  
23/7/12   Written response received from Court of Appeal stating that the appeal could not now be accommodated and the court was proceeding into recess  
2/10/12   Follow up letter sent to the Court of Appeal reminding them that the summer recess was over and again requesting a date for hearing  
8/10/12   Letter written to the CCJ apprising them of the continuous delays and seeking their intervention in getting the appeal heard  

The attorneys for the Appellants have duly complied with the Orders of the CCJ and have since filed all the necessary applications and affidavits, including settling the records of appeal, in support of same since 15th June 2012. Numerous written follow-ups as outlined above and attached herein for your perusal have been made with the Guyana Court of Appeal & the Chancellor’s Office; yet still this matter has not been heard nor has a date even been set for such an important hearing of this appeal. We strongly urge the Court of Appeal to set an urgent date for this hearing. We view this as a severe breach of natural justice as justice delayed can surely, in this case, be equated to justice denied.
In the meantime, the GOG is rapidly moving ahead to ram through some form of legislation to control cricket administration in Guyana, clearly attempting to bypass the court, whilst cricket and cricket administration is bleeding from these multiple and relentless onslaught against a legal body and its Officers that has been in existence for decades. I wish to place on record that there has been several accusations of financial impropriety made against the GCB and its Officers, confiscation of the physical assets of the GCB, lockout from its Offices, harassment and searches of Officers’ residences and Trustees of this Board, investigation by the GPF for which NOT A SINGLE CRIMINAL CHARGE HAS YET BEEN INSTITUTED. The independent Rupert Foster report which was commissioned by the Minister of Labour has clearly vindicated the GCB even though it unearthed a few minor irregularities, not unusual in any organisation.
This government-commissioned report has never been made public by this Minister or the Offices of the Friendly Societies. One can only assume that the report was not to the liking of the powers that be.  Indeed, it really is a tremendous tribute to the tenacity and fortitude of these distinguished Officers that cricket is still being played in Guyana and national teams are still being sent to represent Guyana at the Regional WICB tournaments.
Should legislation be passed allowing control of cricket administration to be government controlled, Guyana risk being ostracized from being a shareholder of the WICB since the ICC holds a similar view as FIFA regarding government intervention in sports. This is clearly not the road that we need to pursue.
Raj Singh- Appellant 

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