THE Judicial Service Commission (JSC) is meeting today to discuss among other things, the appointment of the Registrar and Deputy Registrar of the Supreme Court Registry.A source close to the commission told the Guyana Chronicle that the meeting was summoned by Chairman, Chancellor Carl Singh. The meeting comes after Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Basil Williams visited the Supreme Court Registry on Monday morning. Williams chided the former administration for allowing the court to be run without a Registrar and Deputy.
“The registry seems to be headless …we don’t have a registrar. Ms. Mohamed’s contract just expired a day or so ago and there is no Deputy Registrar, no Assistant Registrar for the Supreme Court Registry and our new government must be concerned about this situation,” Williams told the media.
He explained that it is not government’s responsibility for running the day-to-day activities of the Registry. “The government is responsible for the administration and delivery of justice to our people. It must be important to us that the system of administration runs smoothly.
“The Judicial Service Commission is the body empowered to appoint the Registrar, and Deputy. They have to meet certain qualifications. I don’t know why that hasn’t been done in years. We have to investigate the matter and speak with the chancellor when he comes in,” he said on Monday.
The attorney general said he could not understand why the previous administration would “allow a situation like this to develop.”
The situation, Williams said, must be remedied quickly. “It is clear that people don’t want us to talk about the deficiencies of the system but insofar as we have the remit of the people of Guyana, we have our duty to discharge, we will be as transparent as possible and people can’t call for transparency in one area and don’t want it in another area, so we will continue to ensure that we have a justice system.”
He added, “You would recall when I first took office, one of the things I said is that we have to make regular things that are irregular, this is the most irregular situation you could have where there is no succession plan, or provision made to have an early and smooth transition in a structure. The Constitution requires that the registrar and Deputy Registrar be appointed by the Judicial Service Commission and where they should both be lawyers.”
Williams stressed that government is now called upon to remedy the situation in the interest of the administration of justice. Asked whether government is overstepping into the role of the judiciary, the attorney general replied, “I don’t believe this has anything to do with interfering with the judiciary and it was long held by the Judicial Service Commission that questions of leave and the questions of the administration of justice being administrative is not within the domain of the Chancellor… Once things are administrative and not judicial the government of the day has a right to ensure that the people of Guyana are well served.”
Rashid Mohamed, former Registrar of the Supreme Court acted in the position for the past three years. His contract expired last week. Mohamed was responsible for managing the affairs of the Registry for those three years. He was appointed by contract when the law has not made provision for an acting Registrar.