Attorney General Anil Nandlall today announced that President Donald Ramotar has issued an order increasing the number of Puisne Judges to 20.
The AG’s statement follows:
The Government is pleased to announce that on the 3rd day of February, 2014, His Excellency, President Donald Ramotar, pursuant to Section 3 of the High Court Act, Cap. 3:02, issued the Puisne Judges (maximum number) Order 2014, increasing the number of Puisne Judges to 20. The said Order was duly published on the 8th day of February 2014, in the Official Gazette.
The decision to increase the complement of Puisne Judges was made after due consultation with the Judiciary. It is yet another demonstration of the Executive’s commitment to adequately resourcing the judiciary and supporting its institutional strengthening in order to ensure that in the end, justice is delivered to our people efficiently, competently and with dispatch.
It is the Administration’s hope that this new measure will assist in bringing much needed alacrity to the rate at which cases are heard and determined in our judicial system. From all indications, it appears that the current complement of Puisne Judges is wholly inadequate to meet the volume of litigation engaging the justice system. At a special sitting of the Caribbean Court of Justice in Guyana on the 19th of February 2014, in her farewell presentation, the Hon. Madame Justice Desiree Bernard echoed a call for an increase complement of Puisne Judges. We are pleased to note that the Administration had already acted on the matter.
We trust that those who are endowed with the high constitutional responsibility of recruiting candidates to fill the new vacancies, will discharge this responsibility with due care and circumspection in order to ensure that the new appointees are imbued with the requisite competence and integrity befitting the office to which they seek appointment. In this regard, we hope that quality will never be sacrificed for quantity.
