THE contempt proceedings which were instituted against Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Basil Williams over the Judicial Review Act commencement order, were withdrawn on Friday by People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Executive and Attorney-at-Law, Anil Nandlall.
Nandlall withdrew the proceedings when he appeared in the High Court before Justice Navendra Singh on the grounds that the Judicial Review Act is now in effect in keeping with instructions of the Chief Justice (ag) Roxane George-Wiltshire. On May 28, 2018, the chief justice (ag) had ordered that the order to enforce the Judicial Review Act, be signed no later than July 31, 2018.

In the court on Friday, the attorney general was represented by the Solicitor-General Kim Kyte-Thomas, Barbadian Queen’s Counsel Ralph Thorne and State Counsel Uteika John.
At the conclusion of the in-chamber hearing before Justice Singh, Queen’s Counsel Thorne and the solicitor-general informed reporters that the case was withdrawn. This was confirmed by Nandlall. “Well first of all let me say that the filing of the Judicial Review matter was always inspired by a desire to bring the Act into force, so that the remedies provided by the Act become available to the citizenry to improve good administration, good and transparent government. That was the purpose of those proceedings. That objective was fulfilled eventually of course, though the Attorney General took us through a very circuitous and torturous route, where he first of all avoided the implementation of the Act and then avoided the implementation of the order which compelled him to bring the Act into force. But once I got him to bring the Act into force on the day that the chief justice ordered it to be brought into force, I would have achieved the objectives of filing the proceedings,” Nandlall explained.

He made it clear that the proceedings were never driven by any personal vendetta against the attorney general, noting that once the Judicial Review Act was brought into effect in keeping with the Chief Justice’s (ag) order, he was more than willing to withdraw the contempt proceedings which were initiated on August 20, 2018 by way of a Fixed Date Application in the High Court.

The attorney noted, however, that he could not have withdrawn the contempt proceedings without leave from the court. “It would be imprudent if not disrespectful for a lawyer or a litigant to withdraw a matter with which the court has already [been] seized, unilaterally, and without permission of the court,” Nandlall further explained.

Barbadian Queen’s Counsel Thorne expressed satisfaction with the manner in which the case was dealt with by Nandlall. “As I indicated to the court, we met an opponent this morning who did not behave like an adversary,” he told reporters.

Though thankful that the case has ended, the solicitor-general told reporters that there was no fear that the attorney general would have been committed to contempt proceedings.
“There is no fear of the AG being committed to proceedings, there was never any fear of that. In fact, we had filed a notice of application to dismiss the contempt proceedings, but there was no need for the court to go into hearing that notice of application for the dismissal because Mr. Nandlall withdrew the contempt [proceedings]. And in those circumstances, the court ordered $25,000 cost,” the solicitor-general explained.

When the chief justice (ag) ordered that the Order to enforce the Judicial Review Act, be signed no later than July 31, 2018, the attorney general had filed a Notice of Appeal on June 13, 2018, to appeal her decision. That was followed by an interim Stay of Execution of the Judgment and Orders of the chief justice (ag), as well as a Stay of Execution of the Judgment and Orders at the Court of Appeal.

“The order to operationalise the Judicial Review Act by July 31, 2018, was only brought to the attention of the Respondent by the law officers of the state just before the decision of the Honourable Justice Rafiq Kkan, S.C, which was rendered on the 9th day of August, 2018,” the attorney general had explained in his application to strike out the contempt proceedings.

He had explained that upon learning of the pending decision of Justice Khan, he immediately directed that an application for an urgent hearing of the appeal be filed. That application was filed on August 8, 2018.

The Ministerial Order for the operationalisation of the Judicial Review Act was signed on August 15, 2018 and published in the Official Gazette (Extraordinary) on August 16, 2018, the Legal Affairs Minister pointed out, noting that he was at the time seeking to comply with the Order made by the chief justice (ag). “The existence of the Interim Stay was never brought to the attention of the respondent or the chief parliamentary counsel, which resulted in Ministerial Order No. 28 of 2018 dated the 15th day of August, 2018 and published in the Official Gazette (Extraordinary) on the 16th day of August, 2018, being brought into effect after July 31, 2018,” Minister Williams further explained. That Order, which sought to have the Judicial Review Act take effect from January, 2019, was revoked.
A new Ministerial Order signed by the attorney general was published in the Official Gazette (Extraordinary) on August 27, 2018, in an effort to “diligently” comply with Chief Justice (ag) George-Wiltshire’s order, this time, in keeping with the appointed date – July 31, 2018.