Region 5 Rice Assessment Committee rejects Nandlall’s challenge to its validity

CHAIRMAN of the Rice Assessment Committee of Region 5 (Mahaica/Berbice), Attorney-at-Law Omadatt Chandan, on Monday, affirmed that the RAC has the legal authority to hear and determine applications for the payment of arrears of rent owed to the Mahaica Mahaicony Abary Agricultural Development Authority (MMA/ADA) by its tenant rice farmers.
He said:” I wish to make it explicitly clear that the current RAC is not unlawful nor illegal and does have the jurisdiction to hear and determine the applications being made by the MMA/ADA.” He said so in a ruling on submissions by Counsel for the Tenant farmers Anil Nandlall who had challenged the validity of the RAC to hear such applications by the MMA/ADA.

Mr. Nandlall had, during the last sitting of the RAC, at the Mahaicony Magistrate’s Court, submitted that the body was unlawful, illegal and had no jurisdiction to hear and determine any applications by the MMA/ADA. This illegal status of the RAC, Nandlall said, was due to the absence of required Judicial Service Commission (JSC) input on the appointment of the Chairman of the RAC.

Making submissions to the Committee, Nandlall had said that section 8 (2) of the Act requires the Committee’s chairman to be a magistrate, or a person with qualifications prescribed under regulations promulgated by the Minister of Agriculture in consultation with the JSC. The proviso also dictated that where the Chairman appointed is not a magistrate, that person must be appointed by the Minister of Agriculture on the advice of the JSC.
Importantly, Nandlall said, the current Chairman is not a magistrate, but an employee of the Ministry of Agriculture, which means that the JSC has to be consulted on the regulations setting out the qualifications of the current Chairman. Further, the minister was required to appoint the Chairman on the advice of the JSC.

He argued that the last JSC was appointed by former President Donald Ramotar on 11th September 2014 and that  Article 198 (3) (a) of the Constitution of Guyana limits the tenure of the JSC to three-year cycles, the last JSC had therefore  expired on  the 11th September 2017, more than two years ago. No JSC has been appointed since.

Since the Official Gazette, dated 14th July 2018, puts the appointment date of the current Committee at 27th June 2018, there was no JSC in existence at the time the Chairman was appointed to consult on regulations setting out qualifications, and to advise the minister on the appointment of the Chairman, which, again, was required since the Chairman was not a magistrate.

In these circumstances, Nandlall contended the current RAC “was not established in accordance with Section 8 of the Act, is unlawful, and had no jurisdiction to hear and determine any application made under the Act.” In response Mr. Chandan noted that based on his research there had been consultations held with the JSC and the Chief Parliamentary Counsel since the early years when the Rice Farmers (Security of Tenure ) Act Chapter 69:02 came into existence.

Advice was sought from the JSC and the Chief Parliamentary Counsel and it was agreed that the provisions as set out in the Act were not mandatory as it related to advice sought from the JSC.

Since then the custom and practice for the constitution of these committees had been the same for over 30 years even during the years when Nandlall served as Attorney General. He said inter alia: “I am therefore constrained to dismiss the “written submissions” and subsequent “affidavit” made by Counsel for the tenant rice farmers on the basis that the procedure implored by Counsel (Nandlall) is wholly inappropriate, not correct and is bad in law. Further (the submissions) amounts to an abuse of the Court’s process.”
He further noted that although an allegation of bias was made no evidence had been submitted to support this claim. He denied that he was an employee of the Ministry of Agriculture. He decided that as a result he would not recuse himself from hearing applications by the MMA ADA as requested by Mr Nandlall. Mr. Chandan refused to stay the proceedings of the Committee pending a judicial review of his decisions promised by Mr Nandlall.

As such he continued hearings yesterday against some sixty rice farmers who are the first set of defaulters placed by the MMA in its bid to recover some $1.6Bn owed by these farmers in land rent and drainage and irrigation charges. Several of these farmers however failed to show in Court yesterday.

Legal Officer of for the MMA/ADA Ms. Shinella Ghent said on the sideline of the hearings, that if the defaulters failed to show in Court on three consecutive occasions then judgement will be made in their absence and the MMA would take the necessary steps to recover the arrears owed. The RAC sits next on November 26, its last sitting for the year.

 

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