THE Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister, Basil Williams, has been cleared of the orders filed in an Affidavit by the Deputy Deeds Registrar, Zana Frank, for the simple reason that he should not have been implicated in the case.Last August, Frank had moved to the High Court to have the directive preventing her from functioning removed. She had alleged that the Attorney General attempted to block the decision of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) to appoint her Deputy Deeds Registrar, but instead influenced the appointment of Penelope Whyte as the acting Deputy Registrar, though she is not an attorney.

In filing the legal action, Frank had secured eight orders, some of which directed the Attorney General to show cause why he should not be compelled to obey and comply with the JSC’s decision to appoint her.

The orders also called on him to show cause why his decision to appoint Whyte should not be quashed and to show cause why the Human Resource Manager of the Deeds Registry should not be made to obey the government order to pay Frank all salaries and allowances owed to her since May 9, 2016.

However, by November, Frank, in an “Affidavit in Reply” to the High Court, said it was never her intention to maliciously involve the Attorney General in the matter surrounding her appointment and payment. “I will contend that I never sought to maliciously involve the Minister, but it is rather the response received from the Human Resource Manager and Secretary of the Deeds and Commercial Registry Authority Board, Shyam Doodnauth, that did implicate the Minister,” she had stated in a court document.

In an “Affidavit in Answer” filed in the High Court, the Legal Affairs Minister denied aversions made by Deputy Deeds Registrar that suggested he gave directions for the JSC to appoint Penelope Whyte to the post of Deputy Registrar of Deeds (ag).

When the case came to a close last Friday, the Attorney General was cleared of the orders; however, Justice Brassington Reynolds in his ruling ordered that Frank be reinstated as Deputy Registrar of the Deeds Registry in keeping with the appointment by the JSC. Additionally, he ordered that Frank be paid her salaries in full from the date she was appointed – May 9, 2016.