Following an almost three month hiatus, the Court of Appeal will be fully operational from tomorrow, with the hearing of pending applications for leave to approach the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).
The Court’s Registry confirmed the hearing of the applications when Sunday Stabroek made enquiries on Thursday.
According to the information emanating from the Registry, the first sitting can now take place given that the minimum number of judges required is now in place. In addition to acting Chancellor Yonette Cummings-Edwards, the other appellate judges are acting Chief Justice Roxane George SC and Justice Dawn Gregory. The Court of Appeal comprises five judges but only three are needed per sitting.
The court resumes almost two weeks after Justice George and Justice Gregory took the oath of office as appellate judges.
The first matter will be called at 9 am.
Based on the information provided by the Registry, the court will only be hearing applications not actual appeals when it resumes.
Asked by Sunday Stabroek whether there is a schedule for hearings available, the Registry could not provide any information as to what will happen after Monday.
This newspaper was told that notices for several matters have been sent out to parties. One attorney said that he had received a notice for a hearing of his matter on June 6.
Observers say that given the long break, it is only reasonable that the court should act swiftly and sit regularly so as to ensure that the backlog is reduced.
The court last sat on February 27, when a decision was given in the cross dressing appeal case. Thereafter, there was no indication as to when the next sitting would have been held, but an official had said that efforts were being made to get judges “confirmed and assigned.”
It was former Attorney General Anil Nandlall who had publicly expressed concern at the state of the court, and the fact that it was unable to sit owing to a shortage of judges.
He had laid the blame squarely at the feet of President David Granger, who he said had refused to act on the list submitted by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) a year earlier. On that list were recommendations for two High Court judges and two Appellate Court judges.
Article 128(1) of the Constitution provides that judges, other than the Chancellor and Chief Justice, are appointed by the President “who shall act in accordance with the advice of the Judicial Service Commission.” Article 128(2) also provides that “the President shall act in accordance with the advice of the Judicial Service Commission and appoint a person to act in the office of Justice of Appeal or Puisne Judge, as the case may be.”
Nandlall noted that the Court of Appeal is one of the fundamental links in the chain of Guyana’s judicial structure, as it is the court to which all decisions from the High Court and the Full Court are appealed to, along with all indictable offences tried in the Magistrates’ Courts and also all criminal trials done in the High Court.
He explained that if an accused person is convicted in one of the lower courts and an appeal is filed against that conviction, it is the Court of Appeal to which bail applications are to be made for such a person.
It is also the Court of Appeal that is required to give leave for every person who wishes to appeal to the CCJ. “In short, the Court of Appeal is an indispensable rung in the judicial ladder,” he stressed.
The former AG said that having such an important court not functioning will be “a fundamental blow to the administration of justice in Guyana,” particularly given that the justice system is already overburdened.
Shortly after Justice Cummings-Edwards was sworn in as acting Chancellor in late March, she had stated that addressing the shortage of judges was key on her agenda and that a meeting of the JSC would have been convened shortly.
President Granger, speaking at Justice Cummings-Edwards’ swearing-in ceremony in late March, had acknowledged that there was a shortage of judges and assured that efforts were being made to rectify the situation as soon as possible.
“There is a shortage and we are moving quickly with the Chancellor and the Chief Justice, who have been installed, to have the Court of Appeal constituted; to have the Judicial Service Commis-sion meet to make recommendations and fill the vacancies as soon as possible,’ he had said.
The opposition People’s Progressive Party had bemoaned the state of affairs in the Appellate Court.
