– JSC to answer High Court motion
Suspended Berbice magistrate Geeta Chandan-Edmond is back on the bench today, following an appearance yesterday before Justice Diana Insanally in which the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) was granted leave to reply to a motion brought against the magistrate’s suspension.
The JSC had written to the magistrate suspending her for two weeks with a deduction of one week of her salary, to take effect from September 7, after it held that she was absent from work without authorization and had departed the jurisdiction without permission.
However, Magistrate Chandan-Edmond, through Attorney-at-law Nigel Hughes moved to the High Court to challenge this decision and on September 3, Justice William Ramlal granted an order nisi to have the JSC and its individual members show cause why the decision to have Magistrate Chandan-Edmond suspended for two weeks with a deduction of one week of her salary should not be quashed.
When the matter was called again yesterday before Justice Insanally, leave was sought on behalf of the JSC and its individual members to file an affidavit in answer. The matter would come up again on October 12.
In the meantime, the magistrate has been advised to resume normal duties from today until the matter has been heard and determined.
In a letter dated July 10, Chancellor of the Judiciary (ag) Justice Carl Singh asked the magistrate to explain in writing within four days of receipt of the letter, her unauthorized absence from work on July 4, and for departing “the jurisdiction without permission from your functional superiors.”
Further Magistrate Chandan-Edmond received a letter on July 31, from Secretary of the JSC, Chandra Jagnandan.
The letter stated that at a meeting held on July 29, the JSC, “having considered the seriousness of your absence from duty without approval has agreed to suspend you from official duties for a period of two weeks with the loss of one week’s pay.” The suspension, according to the letter took effect from September 7.
This newspaper learnt that the magistrate decided to challenge the suspension on the basis of her unblemished record.
Through Hughes, Magistrate Chandan-Edmond, who has been sitting in the Berbice Magisterial District since 2005, swore that on July 2, she received a call from a relative in Suriname about the death of an aunt and that the funeral would take place the following day.
According to the affidavit, on July 3, she commenced hearing matters at 9 am as she would normally do and concluded all the day’s cases by 11 am.
Subsequently she telephoned the office of the Chancellor repeatedly for the specific purpose of informing him that she intended to travel to Suriname to attend the funeral. The affidavit stated that on both occasions she was informed that the Chancellor was “not in and might be in later.”
Further, in keeping with the administrative directive of the Chancellor she attempted to contact Justice BS Roy and was also unable to do so.
On her final attempt, the magistrate contacted Jagnandan, the affidavit said, and informed her that she had a family bereavement in Suriname and that she was preparing to travel there to attend the funeral.
She then travelled to Moleson Creek where she intended to join the ferry and she observed that the Chancellor was travelling as well. She felt that this was a good opportunity to inform him of her bereavement and the purpose of her trip.
However, on closer observation she discerned that the Chancellor was not travelling alone and that it was not appropriate to contact him then, the affidavit said.
After receiving the letter from the Chancellor, she responded on July 13, and provided written evidence of her attendance at work on July 3 which included her minute book with a record of the cases she had heard for that day.
