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High Court halts Tribunal probing Carvil Duncan
Not so fast! That seems to be the message Chairman of the Public Service Commission, Carvil Duncan,
Commissioner,
Carvil Duncan
is sending the government. Duncan has caused the High Court to order a suspension of the work of a Presidential Tribunal that has been set up to determine whether the criminal charges he is currently facing is enough to have him removed from office.
The order was granted by Justice Franklin Holder. This order prohibits the three-member Tribunal from investigating and pronouncing on whether Duncan should remain a Member of the Public Service Commission, Judicial Service Commission and the Police Service Commission.
Duncan is being represented in Court by Anil Nandlall.
Nandlall has told the court in writing that the enquiry by the Tribunal prejudices Carvil Duncan’s fair trial rights. He said, “The decision to investigate the Applicant reflects a premature conclusion and/or opinion by the State that he is guilty even before he is tried and proved guilty before the Court which is properly seized of the criminal charges preferred against him.”
Nandlall also said that the grounds upon which the Tribunal was launched are unlawful, unconstitutional, premature, prejudicial, contrary to the rules of natural justice, arbitrary, capricious, in breach of Duncan’s legitimate expectation and is null, void and of no effect.
Justice Holder also quashed Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo’s advice to President David Granger that the question of removing Duncan from those Commissions ought to be investigated on similar grounds of it being unlawful.
Duncan said in court papers that he never received the Prime Minister’s letter asking him to show cause why a Tribunal should not have been set up to investigate his removal from office. He said he was never afforded an opportunity to be heard.
Prime Minister,
Moses Nagamootoo
“The Prime Minster failed when requested to do so in writing to provide any evidence to establish delivery of the said letter to the Applicant.” He also told the Court that he wrote Nagamootoo expressing his concerns.
Duncan also told the court that his lawyer wrote the Tribunal which commenced hearing on October 10, last.
Members were told that the Tribunal “is an interference with the administration of criminal justice and that the Tribunal will assume illegal purposes in the event it furthers the terms of reference.
Our client is entitled to the presumption of innocence guaranteed to him by Article 144 of the Constitution of Guyana and is to be treated as a person wholly innocent of the charges referred to.
“No enquiry can be conducted by the Tribunal into the allegations that are the subject of the criminal proceedings. In the premises our client is advised that your appointment is unlawful and that the Tribunal has been established for illegal purposes to his prejudice and in subversion of the rule of law.”
“Our client received no communication from the Honourable Prime Minister and was not afforded an opportunity to be heard prior to the decision taken by the Prime Minister advising the President that the question of our client’s removal from office should be investigated.”
He said that he also appeared before the Tribunal with Nandlall asking the body not to proceed with its investigation. Duncan told the Court that he offered grounds.
He noted, “No hearing was afforded to me prior to the Prime Minister tendering his advice to the President to launch that my removal from office should be investigated pursuant to Article 225 (4) of the Constitution and therefore, the tribunal itself, was unlawfully established and that the course of action which the tribunal is embarking upon is in violation of and repugnant to the presumption of innocence accorded to me as a fundamental right and freedom by Article 144 of the Constitution and therefore the tribunal will be acting unconstitutionally, unlawfully and illegally.”
But again, the objections were overruled and the Tribunal decided to proceed to discharge its mandate.
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