Two more judges for Appeal Court expected

Mar 18, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
Now that acting Chancellor Carl Singh has gone into retirement and Roxanne George Wiltshire has been appointed Chief Justice (acting), it is expected that steps will be taken to appoint two judges to the Court of Appeal – a delay which has been preventing the hearing of dozens of appeal. There is also need to appoint a few more High Court judges in order to dispose of the huge number of back log cases.
The Court of Appeal has been in limbo for some time now because of the vacancies, and legal sources feel that the government was not too anxious to make the appointments until it is satisfied that it has judges who would be sympathetic to the Granger administration.
On November 25 last year, there were press reports in which Minister of State Joseph Harmon stated that the President will move with reasonable speed on the appointment of judges recommended by the Judicial Services Commission, and Attorney General Basil Williams stated that the President has a discretion in the appointment of judges, but that contention was refuted by former Speaker Ralph Ramkarran, a senior counsel as well as former Attorney General, Anil Nandlall. Nandlall repeatedly accused Williams who was recently elevated to the inner bar, of lackluster performance and lack of knowledge.
On the other hand, the current Attorney General is critical of his predecessor for failing to keep him abreast of activities of the Ministry of Justice before the new administration took office. It is anticipated that the Courts will be busy in the next months and years in light of the large number of pending cases now on the docket in nearly all the courts and the extensive investigations now going on for corruption by senior members of the previous administration. However, according to the opposition leader, Jagdeo, the government is targeting opposition politicians instead of going after drug lords and money launderers.
The State Assets Recovery Programme (SARP) and Special Organized Crime Unit (SOCU) were established to track down persons who defraud the government and sources say that there are dozens of persons and business houses are involved in dishonest schemes. The Judicial Services Commission comprises the Chancellor (acting), Yonette Cummings Edwards, Chief Justice (acting), Roxanne George-Wiltshire, retired Justices Prem Persaud and Lennox Perry. Carvil Duncan has been removed from such.
Oscar Ramjeet

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Latest News