Chief Justice (ag) Roxane George this afternoon struck out an application by attorney Anil Nandlall, for mandatory orders compelling Cabinet including the President to resign, and awarded costs against Nandall in the sum of $500,000.
Nandlall had filed his application on August 26, which was followed by an application by the State to strike out the application on the grounds that it was an abuse of process and an affront to the principle of precedent.
The basis of the Chief Justice’s decision was that the issue was a live one before the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), which pronounced on the matter. In those circumstance, she said, a court of first instance, which she sat as, is bound to that decision by the principle of precedent. Consequently, and since Nandlall was a party to those proceedings, the application was dismissed as wholly misconceived, vexatious, and an absolute abuse of process.
Delivering her judgment, the Chief Justice said that the language used by the CCJ in its June 18 decision made it “…evident that the effect of the NCM was the immediate resignation of Cabinet, but the Court clearly stated that notwithstanding this, the tenure in office of the Cabinet, including the President, as well as Government as a whole, “is on a different footing” – is that of a caretaker mode consequent to the passage of the said NCM.”
The Chief Justice further said that in these circumstances “there could not have been, and cannot be any requirement for a mandatory order compelling Cabinet including the Government to give effect to the resignation of the Cabinet, including the President…”
