Justice of Appeal Rishi Persaud is scheduled to hear the applications made by Attorney General (AG) Basil Williams to stay the effects of two of Chief Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire’s judgments on the December 21st no-confidence vote against government on Thursday afternoon.
Justice Persaud was forced to abandon a scheduled hearing last Wednesday after discovering errors in the summonses filed by the AG. Those errors were corrected and the summonses refiled the following day.
Earlier this month, the AG applied to the court to grant several orders pending the appeal of the decision in the action he brought against Speaker of the National Assembly Dr Barton Scotland and Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo, and the decision in the action initiated by accountant Christopher Ram.
In each case, the court is being asked to grant an order for an interim stay of the effect of the January 31st judgment and order(s) of the Chief Justice until the hearing and determination of the summons filed; an order for a stay of the effect of the judgment and order(s) until the hearing and determination of the appeal filed; a conservatory order preserving the status quo ante that the President, Cabinet and all Ministers of the Government remain in office until the hearing and determination of the appeal; and such further or other order as the Court may deem just.
The judge last Wednesday informed all the interested parties that he could not commence the hearing of the summonses since the information on them was erroneous. In one case, a second appeal was filed with the correct information but the initial appeal, which was defective, was not withdrawn.
In addition to two appeals, Williams had approached the court for a stay of the Chief Justice’s judgments and conservatory orders to keep the President, the Cabinet and government in place until the appeals are heard and determined.
At the start of the stay proceedings, the judge made it clear that he could not hear the cases as they did not list all the respondents. In the AG’s case against Christopher Ram, which was the first to be called, he also pointed out that a fresh Notice of Appeal was filed and though it listed all of the respondents, it was dated February 15th, while the accompanying summons was dated February 5th.
“We have a problem here… this summons for stay would predate this Notice of Appeal… the summons hangs onto the original Notice of Appeal filed where you did not add the Leader of the Opposition,” Justice Persaud informed.
In response Williams said, “I disagree with you. The appeal was properly filed. If a party might have been omitted it doesn’t invalidate or void the application…The party has subsequently been added.”
Williams’ continuous protests and arguments did not persuade the judge, who made it clear that he had no authority to amend the summons in the Ram case to include Jagdeo, whose name was not listed. He advised Williams to withdraw the summonses and refile them with the proper information so that they could be heard by the court.
