— in AG’s challenge to High Court’s decision on no-confidence motion

ACTING Chancellor of the Judiciary, Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards, has set March 12, 2019 for the commencement of legal arguments into the two appeal cases filed by Attorney General Basil Williams challenging the High Court’s decision to uphold the no-confidence motion brought against the government.

The date was arrived at during a Case Management Session on Friday by the full bench of the Court of Appeal, which also included Justices of Appeal Dawn Gregory and Rishi Persaud.
Strict timelines have been set by the chancellor for written submissions for the two cases – the Attorney General v Christopher Ram and The Leader of the Opposition; and The Attorney General v Speaker of the National Assembly, Leader of the Opposition and Joseph Harmon.

Initially, the attorney general, who appeared in association with the Solicitor General Nigel Hawke, Attorneys-at-Law Maxwell Edwards and Mayo Robertson, had requested 10 days to make his submissions on the basis that he needed to file additional grounds for appeal. However, it was subsequently agreed that his submissions would be made within seven days.

Kamal Ramkaran, the attorney representing Christopher Ram; the Leader of the Opposition’s Legal Counsel Anil Nandlall, and Joseph Harmon’s lead Attorney Roysdale Forde, would thereafter have a total of three days to submit their replies, paving the way for the oral arguments to be heard on Tuesday, March 12, 2019 at 09:00hrs at the Court of Appeal. While Harmon was not a party in the case brought by Christopher Ram in the lower court, his lawyer via an oral application successfully added him as a party in the appeal despite objections from Ramkaran and Nandlall.

Notably, while the Speaker of the National Assembly Dr. Barton Scotland is named as a respondent in the case The Attorney General v Speaker of the National Assembly, Leader of the Opposition and Joseph Harmon, through his Attorney, Senior Counsel Rafiq Khan, he has informed the Appellate Court that he would be accepting its ruling, and as such, no submissions would be made on his behalf.

HEARD CONTEMPORANEOUSLY
Attorney-at-Law Robert Corbin, who appeared on behalf of his client Compton Reid in a separate case challenging the High Court’s ruling on the no-confidence motion, expressed concern that the schedule laid out for the cases brought by the attorney general are being heard “contemporaneously” with the applications for the stay of the High Court ruling and Conservatory Order to preserve the status quo of the government.

Corbin pointed out that the applications for the Stay and Conservatory Orders being sought by the attorney general and Compton Reid will be heard by Justice of Appeal Rishi Persaud on March 15 – approximately three days after the substantive matters in the case of the attorney general.

“The Conservatory Orders which have been applied for are scheduled to be heard before your brother on the 15th March and I was wondering whether or not it will be overcrowding the court with seeking to have both matters being addressed at the same time,” Corbin reasoned.

He told the court that he would not wish to have his client’s case – Compton Reid v The Speaker of the National Assembly, Charrandass Persaud, the Attorney General and Leader of the Opposition – restricted by decisions made in the cases brought by the attorney general.

Corbin argued that the appellants and the respondents ought to be given sufficient time to properly address the court on a matter of significant public importance. “I think that we are pronouncing on a fundamental issue for the future of the republic and important issues of interpretation of our constitution in the future not necessarily to deal only with what people perceive as a crisis at this moment, and to move with undue haste, is because of political imperatives to me, would not be in keeping with the expectation of this society which ought to plan for the future,” he told the court. Corbin appeared in association with Senior Counsel Rex McKay and Neil Boston.

The chancellor, while clarifying that Reid’s case has not yet come up, reminded the parties present that the court has received two motions from the attorney general and Christopher Ram seeking early hearing of the cases.

Records for the case Compton Reid v The Speaker of the National Assembly, Charrandass Persaud have not been settled. Once they are, the Appellate Court would send out notices with the date for a case-management session or submissions. Charrandass Persaud’s Attorney Sanjeev Datadin and the Speaker of the National Assembly were among the persons also present during Friday’s case- management session.