–Judge finds it lacked merit

THE application for injunction filed by People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Member of Parliament (MP), Anil Nandlall, against Attorney-General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams, was on Wednesday denied by High Court Judge Priya Sewnarine-Beharry.

Justice Sewnarine-Beharry found, among other things, that the injunction had no merit.

Back in April, Nandlall had approached the High Court with an injunction, seeking to prevent the Minister of Legal Affairs from publicly stating that he (Nandlall) would be charged for stealing several law books, property of the State.

Justice Sewnarine-Beharry refused and dismissed the application for injunction on the grounds that Nandlall was charged for the very offence the AG said he would be charged. During her ruling, Justice Sewnarine-Beharry pointed out that the application for injunction over the “defamatory” statement was made some 11 days after it was allegedly made by the AG. According to her, that suggests that there was no urgency from Nandlall to have the matter addressed.

The Court also observed that Nandlall, in his application, failed to mention that he had approached the very court before on the same matter and was refused.

The court also said that since the filing of the Application by the complainant, certain events had overtaken the statements made in it. In the circumstances, the court said it was therefore satisfied that the current circumstance would be sufficient for denying the application.

Nandlall, who was represented by Attorney Manoj Narayan, was ordered to pay the standard $30,000. The Attorney-General was represented by a four-member team.

Added to the injunction, Nandlall is claiming damages of in excess of $25M for libel published on March 24, 2017, at a press conference, hosted at the National Communication Network Inc; damages of in excess of $25M for libel published in the Guyana Times newspaper on March 25, 2017; damages of in excess of $25M for slander published during an outreach programme in Berbice on March 26, 2017; and damages of in excess of $25M for libel published by Demerarawaves on March 27, 2017.

The substantive matter has been set for November 6, for the Case Management Conference before Justice Sewnarine- Beharry.

Over the last two years, Nandlall has repeatedly confirmed that while he was AG, law books were purchased for him by the State, using taxpayers’ money.

The missing books were bought from Lexis Nexis (U.K.), publishers of the Commonwealth Law Reports, and are said to be worth over $2.5M.

However, after the PPP was unseated in 2015, Nandlall took possession of the books which were bought for him as AG, by the state. Since then, Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams, has been questioned about the missing books and has committed to taking legal action against Nandlall.

The AG has accused Nandlall of allegedly stealing the books, since they were not in possession of the AG’s chambers, despite the fact that they were bought for the then AG with state funds.

The AG has been maintaining that the Law books were purchased with state funds and were intended to be used by the state and its officials. He said any arrangement that does not conform to the established Public Service Rules or Regulations can be deemed a breach of the Fiscal Management Accountability Act (FMAA). The AG said his duty as Custodian of state assets is to protect the assets and undertake a reasonable investigation into the location of the assets.