— on appointment of Deeds and Commercial Registries Authority board

ATTORNEY General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams has filed a Notice of Application to be heard by the High Court to contest the March 8 decision of that court to grant an Order Nisi of Mandamus on him to appoint members of the governing board of the Deeds and Commercial Registries Authority.

Williams and the named respondents, the Governing Board of the Deeds and Commercial Registry, the Chairman of the Governing Board of the Deeds and Commercial Registry, the Registrar of Deeds and the Registrar of the Commercial Registry are calling on the court to discharge the orders and refuse to hear the merits of the application filed by former Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall.

In his Notice of Application, the respondents contend that the Court should not exercise its jurisdiction to determine the Fixed Date Application and that the grounds for the application are that Nandlall, a Member of Parliament’s contention that the respondents are in breach of the Deeds and Commercial Registries Authority Act 2013, ACT No.4 of 2013 is flawed.

According to the respondents, Nandlall approached the court ex-parte and as a result was duty bound to disclose all material facts pertinent to his application but failed to so do. As such, the respondents argue that Nandlall “concealed material facts from the court when he failed to disclose that the Deeds and Commercial Registries Authorities (Amendment) Bill 2017 – Bill No. 3/2017 published on 2017-01-24, was placed before the National Assembly on an Order Paper for the 61st Sitting of the National Assembly of the First Session (2015-2017) of the Eleventh Parliament of Guyana to be held at 2.00pm on Thursday, 9th February, 2017, and again at the 62nd Sitting on Thursday 9th March, 2017, for second reading , the first reading of which was done on 30th January, 2017”.

The identified legislation proposed to amend the provision of the Act to, inter alia, increase the number of members of the board and as such, the respondents contend that it would be impractical in the circumstances for the Minister of Legal Affairs to appoint a board.

NON-DISCLOSURE
“The respondents will contend that the applicant, being a Member of Parliament, was at all material times aware that the said bill was engaging the attention of the National Assembly and failed to disclose this information to the court,” and noted that the non-disclosure entitles the court to discharge the orders nisi and refuse to hear the merits of the application.

Additionally, when the matter comes up again before Justice Brassington Reynolds, the respondents intend to argue that the order of the court is “tantamount to interfering with the functions of the Executive, which is a breach of the doctrine of Separation of Powers”.

Meanwhile, Nandlall in his application was filed on March 6, said that the Deeds and Commercial Registries Authority Act 2013, Act No. 4 of 2013 establishes the Deeds and Commercial Registry as a corporate body, to establish and promote the efficient and orderly operation of the Deeds Registry and the Commercial Registry, to establish the conditions governing the employment of officers and employees of the authority.

In his application, Nandlall alleged that the respondents are in breach of the Deeds and Commercial Registries Authority Act 2013, Act No, 4 of 2013 and sought the Writs of Mandamus compelling the Minister of Legal Affairs to appoint the Governing Board of the Deeds and Commercial Registries Authority; compelling the Governing Board of the Deeds and Commercial Registries Authority to discharge the functions devolving upon it in accordance with the provisions of the Deeds and Commercial Registries Authority Act 2013, Act No, 4 of 2013; compelling the Chairman of Governing Board of the Deeds and Commercial Registries Authority to discharge the functions devolving upon it in accordance with the provisions of the Deeds and Commercial Registries Authority Act 2013, Act No, 4 of 2013; compelling the Registrar of Deeds to discharge the functions devolving upon the said board in accordance with the provisions of the Deeds and Commercial Registries Authority Act 2013, Act No, 4 of 2013; and compelling the Registrar of the Commercial Registry to discharge the functions devolving upon the said board in accordance with the provisions of the Deeds and Commercial Registries Authority Act 2013, Act No, 4 of 2013.

Nandlall was represented by Attorneys-at-law Mursaline Bacchus, Bibi Shadick, Priya Manickchand, Adrian Anamayah, Euclin Gomes, Sase Gunraj, Manoj Narayan, C.V Satram, Mark Conway, Sasha Mahadeo-Narayan and Rajendra Jaigobin.