Cabinet and the marijuana laws

Jul 03, 2019 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The Caribbean Court of Justice has ruled that the no-confidence motion of December 21st 2018 was validly passed. They have also held that as a result, Articles 106 (6) and 106 (7) were triggered.
The judges said, “We are therefore of the view that the National Assembly properly passed a motion of no confidence in the Government on 21 December 2018, and that the provisions of Article 106 (6) and (7) …were accordingly triggered”
The triggering of these provisions means that Cabinet is resigned by operation of law. This implies that regardless of whether there is a formal resignation of members of Cabinet, it stands resigned. It does not exist at present. It cannot therefore be convened nor can it make any decisions.
This is in accordance with Article 106(6) of the Constitution which states that the Cabinet, including the President, shall resign if the Government is defeated by the vote of a majority of all the elected members of the National Assembly “on a vote of confidence.”
Cabinet however is not the government and the government remains in place until elections are held. Article 106(7) states among other things, that notwithstanding its defeat, the government shall remain in office and shall hold an election within three months. There is no Cabinet, but there is a government, a position which supports the position that the government should only be concerned with caretaker functions until elections are held.
It would be disingenuous for the government to try to be cunning. The CCJ has sounded a warning. It said “The provisions of Article 106 (6) and (7) are clear on their face. They hardly require further interpretation on the part of the courts.
One of the judges in her ruling recalled that the Explanatory Memorandum to the Bill which introduced the amendment of Article 106 simply stated: “Clause 5 alters article 106 to provide for the resignation of the Cabinet and the President following the defeat of the Government in the National Assembly on a vote of confidence.”
The Executive will be courting the ire of the court if it fails to appreciate that there can be no Cabinet following the decision of the Court. It seems, however, as if the Executive is willing to take that gamble.
Another judge had this to say, “The inexplicable disregard by the organs of the State of the constitutional injunction in Article 106(7) that elections must be held within three months of the passage of a confidence motion means that the country has been mired in a constitutional crisis for the past six months with no clear end in sight.”
The court cautioned, “As we await the further submissions of Counsel on what consequences, if any, should be prescribed by the Court in these appeals, I urge all to bear in mind that the rule of law is an important guiding constitutional principle of a sovereign democratic state like Guyana.”
I have gone to great lengths to quote from the ruling of the Court to illustrate how critical it is for the government to act in accordance with the Constitution. Yet, yesterday there was a release which stated that Cabinet had approved of non-custodial sentencing for possession of small amounts of marijuana.
Cabinet should not have been meeting. It stands resigned. It does not have a legal leg on which to stand. Therefore, any decision that it would have made after the ruling of the CCJ is null and void.
The decision of Cabinet about the non-custodial sentences for the possession of small amounts of marijuana is of no legal effect. It is at this stage merely a promise, which can only be realized once a law authorising such changes is passed in the National Assembly. And the tabling of a Bill to change the country’s marijuana laws has to emanate from Cabinet. Right now there is no lawful Cabinet.

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Cabinet and the marijuana laws

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