Pronouncements on leave for acting Chief Justice Ian Chang and matters relating to his office ought to be made by the Chancellor and not the Attorney-General, according to the Guyana Bar Association (GBA), which said yesterday that any deviation from this borders on the violation of the independence of the judiciary.
The GBA’s pronouncement came in wake of AG Basil Williams’s statements during a recent press conference on Chang’s impending retirement. He had said checks are being made to ascertain whether the acting Chief Justice had taken his annual vacation leave since he assumed office.
In a press release issued yesterday, the GBA pointed out that Williams dealt in detail with the issue. “We regret that in the course of his reply to the reporter the Attorney General gave the clear impression that vacation leave for the Chief Justice is a matter on which he should pronounce in his capacity as Minister of Legal Affairs. In fact, matters concerning the Chief Justice fall under the Chancellor and the Judicial Service Commission, and not the Minister,” it said. “And under the very important principle of the independence of the judiciary any member of the Executive, including the Attorney General and the Minister of Legal Affairs, must be very careful not to act in violation of, or appear to compromise that independence,” it added.
The GBA further said the comments made by Williams can have the unintended effect of politicising not only the issue of leave of one of the country’s top judicial officers but also the office itself.
In fact, it noted that following Williams’s remarks, a number of senior and junior members of the Bar contacted members of the Council of the Bar Association “to express their dismay.”
It was stated that following a request the GBA President Christopher Ram met with Williams last Thursday to convey the sentiments of the members. The meeting, the release said, was frank but very cordial.
The GBA also noted that the Constitution provides that the appointments of the Chancellor and Chief Justice are made by the President after agreement with the leader of the opposition. “The Bar Association is confident that at the appropriate time, the country’s two leaders will take the necessary steps to address the vacancies in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution,” the release added.
Meanwhile, the Association welcomed the initiatives restated by the AG during the press conference, including the appointment of a permanent Law Reform Commission, implementing a fast track mechanism for submitting appeals to the Caribbean Court of Justice, setting up of a Law Revision Office and undertaking a revision of the laws to update them to 2015.
The release said that over the years the GBA has called for many of these measures and the implementation of those announced by government along with those committed by Chancellor Carl Singh earlier this year should go a far way to address dome of the “endemic problems” experienced in the administration of justice in Guyana. It was revealed that among the measures promised by Singh are the implementation of the new Civil Procedures Rules, additional magistrates and a new court on the East Bank of Demerara.
