Matters at the Land Court in Georgetown are presently at a standstill because there is no Commissioner of Title but plans are being put in place to have this resolved.
In a telephone interview with Stabroek News yesterday, Chancellor of the Judiciary Carl Singh said that the Commissioner of Title Rabindra Rooplall has retired and the court is at a standstill but plans are afoot to have a sitting in Georgetown for three days a week.
However, according to a source close to the Land Court, Rooplall “left to go on leave in November last year and he just never came back. Right now things are stalled at the moment and we have to re-fix matters.”
Meanwhile, Attorney-General Anil Nandlall told Stabroek News that Rooplall’s tenure came to an end after which he retired. According to Nandlall, at present another land court judge cannot be appointed because there is no Judicial Service Commission (JSC). “The Leader of the Opposition and the President are in consultations in relation to appointing persons to the Judicial Service Commission,” he said.
Singh, meantime, said that in this year’s budget, money was identified for a building and the Land Court is expected to be relocated from Brickdam to the compound of the High Court. He further explained that the JSC does not have a quorum and steps are being taken to reconstitute the commission. Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh in his budget presentation last Monday said that $1.8 billion was being allocated to consolidate the advances already made in the justice sector.
Stabroek News spoke with several persons recently who complained about the backlog in their cases because of the present situation.
According to one man “This thing really frustrating; my case going on since December and when I went they told me that they have no judge and they referred the matter to January. I went in January and they told me the same thing and they referred it to March. Now March come and I go back to them last week and is the same thing they keep telling me all the time. There needs to be a judge for this court cause is not only me alone going through this, is nuff people,” he said.
