– over Judicial Review Act commencement date

ATTORNEY-General and Legal Affairs Minister, Basil Williams says he had no knowledge that he had failed in his attempt to secure a stay for an order by Chief Justice (ag) Roxane George-Wiltshire when he identified January 1, 2019 as the commencement date for the Judicial Review Act.

In May, 2018, the Chief Justice had ruled that Minister Williams’ failure to bring the Act into force was unlawful and in violation of the will of the people. In response, the Attorney-General, at the level of the Court of Appeal, filed an application to stay the execution of the Chief Justice’s decision, but Justice of Appeal Rafiq Khan discharged the application.

On Monday during a press conference at his Chambers, the Attorney-General said when he signed the commencement order on August 15, 2018 for the Judicial Review Act to take effect from January 1, 2019 and not on July 31, 2018 as stipulated by the Chief Justice, he had no knowledge that the stay of execution was not granted.

“Because the knowledge of an interim stay was not known, the advice from the parliamentary division was that since July 31 had passed, then you had to use within a reasonable time,” Minister Williams told reporters.

But the Attorney-General corrected this action by issuing a new commencement order on August 27, which in the Official Gazette identified July 31, 2018 as the commencement date for the implementation of the Judicial Review Act, in keeping with the ruling handed down by the Chief Justice (ag).

The Judicial Review Act No. 23 of 2010 provides for an application to be made to the High Court for relief by way of judicial review.

Reminding reporters that the Judicial Review Act is a product of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), which was assented to by the then President Bharrat Jagdeo in 2010, and was not enforced under that administration, Minister Williams contended:
“They never brought it into effect, and it was because they didn’t want us who were in opposition, me in particular, to be able to sue them by using all of the remedies that that Act would have presented to me.”

NOTICE OF APPEAL
In addition to the stay of execution application which was shot down by Justice Khan, the Attorney-General also filed a Notice of Appeal against the decision of Chief Justice (ag). That matter is likely to come up when the court returns from recess.

The Notice of Appeal is calling on the Court of Appeal to set aside the entire decision handed down by the Chief Justice, on the grounds that she “committed a specific illegality when, by her ruling, she purported to dictate to the Minister of Legal Affairs her own timelines to bring the Judicial Review Act into force, in contravention of the doctrine of the Separation of Powers.”

According to Minister Williams, the Chief Justice usurped the discretion vested in him by the legislature to bring legislation into force. The chief justice’s ruling follows an application to the court last year by Former Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, calling for Williams to be mandated to bring into force the Judicial Review Act.

Nandlall had acknowledged that the said Act was not brought into operation by him when he served as Legal Affairs Minister, because there were no complementary procedural rules of the court to accompany the said Act, as the Rules of the High Court 1955 made no provisions for a judicial review.

Nandlall said that at the time, new Civil Procedure Rules were in draft form, and these rules laid out the legal procedure in respect of how the court can be approached to access the remedies provided for in the Judicial Review Act.

He, however, said on February 5, 2017 that a Practice Direction, dated January 23, 2017 and published on February 4, 2017 in the Official Gazette by the Honourable Chancellor (ag.) Mr. Justice Carl Singh, directed that the Civil Procedure Rules 2016 shall take effect from February 6, 2017; the said Practice Direction also provided that the Civil Procedure Rules 2016 shall govern the practice and procedure of all civil proceedings filed in the High Court of the Supreme Court of Judicature after February 6, 2017.

However, the Minister of Legal Affairs argues that the judge erred when she failed to apply the overriding objective of the new Civil Procedure Rules to deal with cases justly and not to exercise her discretion injudiciously by stepping into the province of the executive Arm of government.

Further, he posits that Justice George-Wiltshire committed a specific illegality when she ruled that he had breached a duty by not bringing the Judicial Review Act into force.
On Monday, the Attorney-General said the State will appeal the case at the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) if the need arises.