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A plea for the confirmation of the Chancellor of the Judiciary

Oct 28, 2015 Letters

Dear Editor
I read in the papers that the Honorable Chancellor has sought to explain the position in the High Court Registry. In doing so he explained that in 1983 he had just qualified as a lawyer and at that time there was no Deputy Registrar of Deeds. This fact reminded me of the fact that in 1983 I won my first murder case in Barbados. Where three Guyanese charged with murder were acquitted, I can recall meeting a number of students including the Chancellor, Messrs. Mr. Neil Boston, Mr. Lesley Hulls, Mr. Basil Williams and Debra Barker and others and giving them encouragement to become good Lawyers. The Chancellor has always been close to me and I admire him how he climbed the ladder from a practitioner, then a Commissioner of Title, then a Judge and so forth.
I agree with Mr. Ramkarran who in one of his articles recently stated that Carl Singh has a sound legal experience and ought to be appointed Chancellor. I purposely set out the details above so that it could be appreciated that my long experience in the legal profession qualifies me to make the following suggestions: My view is that this new Government is doing a good job and ought to continue along this line. The judicial system has to be looked at immediately. There is no time to point out who is to be blamed. There are problems which have to be solved and action must be taken swiftly. The Chancellor is now 63 years old and has basically a world of experience that will enable him to perform perhaps better when appointed than he is doing now. A new Chief Justice has to be appointed once the Chancellor is confirmed in the position he has been acting in for over 10 years. One of the reasons why he should be appointed now is that there is no allegation proved against him to make him unfit for the appointment. It must be regretted that the acting Chief Justice the Honorable Ian Chang cannot be confirmed because in February, 2016 he would reach the age of 65 years.
However I would like to suggest that after his retirement, the Government should find some position for him because with his excellent legal knowledge and experience he could continue to make valuable contributions to the legal profession in Guyana especially in the realm of Public Law. The Government’s, failure to take this opportunity to retain the retired acting Chief Justice in the system would possibly lead to unforeseen problems. It is known that retired Judges are always available. In the case of the late Chancellor George, he was employed at the Court of Appeal in the Bahamas. In the case of our only female Chancellor now retired Madam Justice Deserie Bernard, she went to the Caribbean Court of Appeal and now has gone on further. The late Chancellor the Honorable Aubrey Bishop made valued contributions at the University of Guyana as well as the retired Attorney General the Honorable Justice Messiah and I can go on and on. Since this Government is working assiduously towards the good for Guyana, in my opinion it should not give any opportunity for the Opposition who appear not to have the entire Guyana at heart to steal people like the Honorable Ian Chang. After his retirement I trust that this simple analysis will lend some assistance to the Government to deal with the matters at hand.
Jonas Coddett
Attorney-at-Law

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