The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) Friday upheld the decision by Justice Navindra Singh relating to the Demerara Cricket Board (DCB) elections, according to the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB).
Justice Singh had ruled that the Demerara Cricket Board elections could be held but an application on behalf of Anand Sanasie and Anand Kalladeen challenged the decision by Singh.
That challenge was dismissed by the CCJ who ruled that the applicants had failed to establish that their challenge to Justice Singh’s Order had any likelihood or chance of success.
The applicants were also ordered to pay the costs of the respondents, the release from the GCB stated.
A summary of the ruling indicates that Justice Singh had ruled on June 20, 2019 that the term of office for the DCB members had ended and had set a date for new elections.
However, Sanasie and Kalladeen’s representatives Ron Motilall and C. V. Satram filed an appeal against Justice Singh’s Order and a Stay of that Order was granted by the Court of Appeal. Additionally, the Guyana Cricket Administration Act (GCAA) was suspended by an Order of a single judge of the Court of Appeal, the release stated.
Subsequently, per the order, DCB elections were finally held and Bissoondyal Singh was elected president.
The applicants appealed that decision in the Court of Appeal and by consent, an interim Stay of Execution of the order was granted. Sanasie and Kalladeen also challenged the constitutionality of the GCAA and some provisions of the act were suspended.
Notably, those provisions were used by Justice Singh to make his order and while the appeal was pending and the stay was in operation, Kalladeen and Sanasie convened a DCB elections and an executive committee was elected in January, 2020.
In September, 2020, the order suspending the provisions of the act was discarded and on February 2, 2021 an order was filed to vary the timelines. On February 15, 2021 Justice Singh granted an application and extended the deadline for delegates to be submitted by February 17, 2021. He also extended the time for the staging of the DCB elections to February 21, 2021.
According to the GCB release, “The holding of the DCB Election in February, 2021 paved the way for the Honourable Minister of Sports, Charles Ramson Jr., to appoint a Cricket Ombudsman and to have the long-awaited and much delayed lawful election of the Guyana Cricket Board which was subsequently held in March, 2021.”
“The decision of the CCJ brought an end to almost twelve (12) years of litigation,” the GCB release stated.
The CCJ concluded that Justice Singh had jurisdiction to extend any time prescribed by an order upon application or, of his own initiative.
Additionally, the CCJ held that although the new timeline appeared to be aggressive, the hearing was between the parties and the exercise of the judge’s discretion should not be called into question.
There was no evidence that the timelines for DCB elections were unreasonable.
