Attorney General Basil Williams SC, while denying that he has been publicly attacking outgoing Chancellor (ag) Carl Singh and the judiciary, yesterday said that he was trying to clean up the mess left behind by the PPP/C administration.
Speaking at a press conference, he told reporters that he has said nothing that could be likened to an attack on the judiciary. “All that I have said in relation to the two cases is that we would appeal the two cases to the CCJ. I am not sure how they confusing Maxwell Edwards and other people’s opinions with mine,” he said.
He was making reference to the race baiting appeal case involving PPP/C Leader Bharrat Jagdeo and a $446 million judgement granted in favour of Dipcon Engineering Services Limited.
The Minister of Legal Affairs noted that Edwards, a letter writer, appears “hell bent” on making public the happenings within the judiciary. “But for my part I don’t have to do anything because the Chancellor himself established a precedence in the case of the Acting Chief Justice [Ian Chang] last year,” he said, explaining that Justice Singh as Chairman of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) would have the particulars on pre-retirement leave, something that he did not have.
Williams said it was Justice Singh who provided him with this information with regard to Justice Chang and it was because of this that he was able to determine when Justice Chang had to leave office on retirement and when he had to demit office. Stressing that both men share the same birthday – February 23, Williams said, “it will be strange to me that having done that in the case of acting Chief Justice Chang in his case that it would be different. I would expect that the Chancellor would also proceed on pre-retirement leave and then leave on his birthday… So there was no need for me to make any noise.”
Within the last few weeks, many have observed what has been described as a calculated attack on the Chancellor.
Last Friday at the opening of a two-day seminar on the new Civil Procedures Rules, Justice Singh made it clear that he will demit office on February 23, and not a day before.
“…Not when the Chronicle says I must leave… My constitutional tenure expires on the 23rd of February, 2017, and until such time unless my appointment is revoked, I intend to exercise my functions as a judge,” he declared.
Justice Singh’s comment was a reference to the Guyana Chronicle’s recent reportage on concerns, including by Williams, about him attempting to hear cases in spite of his impending retirement, he had said.
Jagdeo and former Speaker of the National Assembly Ralph Ramkarran SC have lashed out at Williams charging that he is interfering with the judiciary.
In response, Williams said yesterday that it was under the tenure of Jagdeo that “our judiciary was emasculated. Our judiciary …the powers were removed from the Chief Justice’s office and reposed in the office of Chancellor and then what they did was when there was a meeting of the Opposition Leader and the President to determine who should be Chancellor and Chief Justice, Jagdeo always asserted Carl Singh to be the Chancellor. Why? Because he prepared a wicket…” Williams told reporters that it was important that there was a dichotomy between the functions of these two offices in terms of being able to share the work in the judiciary, so that one person will not be in charge of the entire judiciary administratively.
He said this situation has had some negative effects. Effectively, the Chief Justice was supposed to have supervision over the judges of the High Court, and the Chancellor, supervision of the judges in the Appellate Court and the magistrates, he said. However, “we had a situation where the check and balance that we had was removed and so you actually had the Chancellor appointing from day one who should be the magistrate who should be the judge and who sits in the Court of Appeal. How could that be healthy? It means then that at the end of the day he would be sitting on appeal of decisions made by people he had actually handpicked to sit in cases and that couldn’t be well for the administration of justice.”
He said government has found “other things” which occurred under the Jagdeo administration. He said that in Guyana the three branches of government should have their own independent rules. “What we had under Jagdeo is that we had a marauding judiciary so the complaint is not that there is interference with the judiciary. The judiciary under Jagdeo was interfering in the work of the executive and that is happening till now. Where was Mr Ramkarran who was part and parcel of that? You ever heard him making any objections to it?” he asked.
He said it was clearly seen how “dysfunctional the judiciary was made under Jagdeo. It has a chronic backlog of cases. We inherited a dysfunctional judiciary so I don’t know what Jagdeo is talking about and we are going to correct it and that is what we are trying to do.”
Ramkarran on Sunday accused the APNU+AFC government of intimidatory behaviour towards the judiciary and acting Chancellor, Justice Singh.
In a blistering commentary carried in the Sunday Stabroek, Ramkarran also took aim at the state-owned Guyana Chronicle over the attacks on the judiciary and Justice Singh.
Ramkarran said that neither the Bar nor the Judiciary can afford to be silent on the attacks which he labelled as “unprecedented in their savagery”.
“This open, blatant and shameless intimidation, is not meant only for this Chancellor. It is a message to the next Chancellor and Chief Justice, who will be appointed shortly, and for the entire judiciary, to toe the line. Neither the judiciary, the Bar nor the public can afford to be silent at these alarming developments. If not arrested now, they will only get worse”, Ramkarran declared.
Ramkarran is the first senior member of the Bar to say anything about the attacks.
He charged: “The Guyana Chronicle’s obscene calumny against Chancellor of the Judiciary Carl Singh, over several months and getting worse, its contempt of court and the government’s intimidation of the judiciary have become deeply troubling. The Chancellor was publicly warned to go on pre-retirement leave and not to hear any ‘political’ cases. Suspicion was expressed that he would start a case and postpone it beyond his retirement date so as to seek to extend his term of office.
“What is worse is that a lawyer, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, who has responsibility for information and the power to stop the Chronicle since it started its disgraceful campaign several weeks ago, has allowed it to continue. The only conclusion is that the Chronicle’s rampage against the Chancellor, and subversion of the judiciary, is official government policy.”
