I had the displeasure of recently sitting a whole day in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court in Middle Street. I shall not mention the court’s number but it was conducted by a woman who was loud, insensitive and authoritarian. What she did for the large majority of cases which came before her was to put them off mostly for two weeks.
In any law reform, it must be prescribed that the magistrates dispense justice and not spend the court’s and litigants’ time in carrying out peripheral administrative action of putting off cases. Such postponements unjustly torture persons who are remanded to the Georgetown Prison and most importantly, clog up the entire judicial system to the point where it does not function.
There is a recent law compelling judges to give their decision within three months after the end of a case. Could the same thing be done making it obligatory that magistrates be made to dispense justice and not to drag on cases denying justice?
And secondly, law reform should address the police charging citizens for offences or misdemeanours which are civil but for which criminal charges are instituted. The magistrates should forthwith dismiss such charges, but either through ignorance or inertia they allow such charges to persist imposing injustice rather than justice.
If such blatantly incorrect charges are brought before the Police Complaints Authority, a thorough investigation must be carried out and the police personnel who were responsible for such incorrect charges must be severely disciplined. And there are other instances of misuse of police authority which must be corrected if Guyana is to emerge as a country with a high level of civility.