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Chief Justice retires; will Chief Mike retire too?

Dec 09, 2015 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Space will not permit a discussion of Chief Mike, so I will confine this commentary to Chief Justice, Ian Chang. He goes on retirement leave next Tuesday. Will he occupy a spot on South Road or Croal Street and engage in private practice?
I believe retired judges should not return to private practice as counsel, because it appears inelegant. I am not suggesting that such a right should be legislated against them. If a retired judge wants to return to private practice, that is his/her business. But I would stress that it does appear inelegant; more so for someone who was the Chief Justice or the Chancellor.
I haven’t done the research, but I know Supreme Court judges in India are not allowed to take up employment with private companies when they leave the bench. In the US, Supreme Court judges do not have a retirement age. In Guyana, the former Chancellor Keith Massiah did return to the court circuit. In fact, he was one of the lawyers for the University in 1996 when I filed a writ against the University for admitting law students without the approval of the Board of the Faculty of Social Sciences.
We can say Chang is gone, because it doesn’t look like the present government wants to go in the direction of the Burnham regime and extend the life of judges. I guess there is always room for their talent in other areas like judicial reform or consultancy to the State. There is also the UG route. Retired Chancellors Aubrey Bishop and Keith Massiah took up teaching appointments at UG.
Whether you like or dislike Chang, he has carved his name on the walls of Guyanese Jurisprudence. He gave some deeply controversial decisions, the implications of which will reverberate for a long time. I am not a lawyer, but I have read the disagreements with his judgements with intense relentlessness. I would say I do not agree with a majority of his decisions. When I juxtapose his citations of the law in favour of the repudiation of the two-term constitution limit on Presidents with that of Mr. Christopher Ram, I find Ram’s argument more convincing.
I was unimpressed with his decision on the then Police Commissioner, Henry Greene, who sought court intervention against being charged for rape. The Chief Justice ruled in favour of Greene. I read where a lawyer is asking the lower court to postpone indefinitely the case against former Minister Jennifer Westford. Can the court put down a criminal case indefinitely?
If the police forward a file to the DPP based on evidence gathered, how can you seek an injunction to prevent the DPP from recommending charges? If the law allows that, then surely, the floodgates have to open up.
How does an accused know he/she will be charged? Right now, no one except the DPP knows if PPP Ministers will be charged for the Pradoville 2 scandal. How then can one such Minister seek the court’s intervention against the DPP?  I find the Chief Justice’s $500,000 bail put on famed footballer, Vibert Butts, on his marijuana conviction appeal, unreasonably harsh.
Does Chang think Butts is a flight risk?  I recall that in front of Christopher Ram, I told Justice Chang, I knew he wrote President Jagdeo when the GRA turned down his duty free car application on procedural grounds. GRA insisted the application should have originated from the Chancellor. Then there was the writ of habeas corpus for me and Mark Benschop for a harmless traffic offence that Justice Chang refused to hear. I will have more to say on that later.
The Chang decision that I will always remember is the Carol Sooba drama. Mr. Royston King asked the Chief Justice to rule that the Minister of Local Government did not have the authority to appoint Sooba as Acting Town Clerk. The Chief Justice ruled in favour of King, but allowed Sooba to continue in office. Mr. King is now the Town Clerk, not by a court decision but by the change in government.
I would urge him not to abandon his appeal which will come up one day. This case is too important to Guyanese jurisprudence to be allowed to die a natural death. I appeal to every lawyer in this country to offer an opinion if Sooba could have been allowed to continue.
I end on a personal note.  Justice Chang catapulted me into the history books. Jagdeo’s libel was heard eleven months after the writ was filed.  For libel trials, I think that is a record in terms of speedy hearing in the entire history of Guyana; maybe the world.  Eleven months after papers were filed? Really!

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