Contempt proceedings against Attorney General withdrawn

Sep 15, 2018 News

The contempt proceedings filed against Attorney General Basil Williams have been withdrawn. The decision to withdraw the proceeding was made yesterday after the case came up at the High Court before Justice Navindra Singh.
Earlier this year, Attorney-at-law Anil Nandlall had filed contempt proceeding against the AG for failing to operationsalise the Judicial Review Act,(JRA) in keeping with a Court order issued by Chief Justice (Ag) Roxanne George..
The JRA is an area of public law which is designed to specifically assist members of the public in challenging acts committed against them by State officials including Government Ministers.
The Act was passed in 2010 but was scheduled to be enacted after the new High Court rules /Civil Procedure Rules, (CPR) were in place. The new High Court rules came into being in 2017 and the Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Basil Williams was tasked with bringing the Act into effect by publishing an order signed by him in the Official Gazette.
However, Williams has been accused of procrastinating on the matter. In May, the Chief Justice, (CJ) issued an order for Minister Williams to operationalise the Act on July 31, but Williams sought to challenge and stay the order of the CJ by filing motions of Appeal. Following a ruling by the Appeal Court in favour of bringing the act into operation, information was issued in the official gazette purportedly to bring the JRA into force. However the date of commencement was not in keeping with CJ’s order.
Instead, the information published in the official Gazette noted that the JRA will commence on January 1, 2019. A new commencement order for July 31 was later issued by the AG’s chambers. Nandlall had filed contempt proceedings against the AG and Williams had asked that contempt proceedings filed against him be struck out on the grounds that it will constitute an abuse of the court process since he has already complied with the court order.
When the matter came up yesterday Nandlall through his attorney expressed that although there is basis to proceed with the Contempt of Court proceedings, he did not desire to do so.
Following the hearing Nandlall told the court that his intention his intention from the beginning was always to cause the J. R. A. to be operationalized “so that the citizens can access the remedies under the Act to ensure that there is good and accountable government and public administration. I am happy that I was able to achieve that objective. That is what is important.”
It was pointed out however that the Attorney General is in further Contempt of Court in that he has not paid 100,000 cost awarded by Chief Justice George nor 150,000 ordered by Justice of Appeal Khan in the Court of Appeal have been paid.
“My lawyer indicated that once these costs are paid he is prepared to withdraw the Contempt proceedings. The judge agreed and imposed another twenty-five thousand dollars (25,000) which the Attorney General must pay for the Contempt proceedings. The judge ordered that these costs be paid by the 12th of October, 2018. “ Nandlall said.

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