…Timothy Jonas now challenges the appointment of four others
ATTORNEY-AT-LAW and Executive Member of A New and United Guyana (ANUG) has initiated legal proceedings in the High Court, challenging the decision of President David Granger to appoint four Attorneys-at-Law, Senior Counsel. Jonas himself was overlooked for the title and had caused a public row over the matter, which was initiated by attorney, Sanjeev Datadin. Attorney General Basil Williams had said then that Jonas is a junior attorney and did not have the weight of years.
In his Fixed Date Application filed in the High Court late last month, Jonas is asking the court to grant an Order of Certiorari to quash the appointment of Attorneys-at-Law Jamila Ali, Roysdale Forde, Mursalene Bacchus and Stanley Moore as Senior Counsel. The Attorney General was named as the respondent in the matter.
In laying down the grounds for his application, Jonas said “the power and discretion to admit persons at the Bar of Guyana, to preside over such persons, to discipline, suspend and disbar such persons is conferred by the provisions of the Legal Practitioners Act and common law on the High Court of the Supreme Court of Judicature of Guyana.”

He noted that the Full Bench of the High Court has from time to time exercise a discretion to confer on Attorneys-at-Law who have practiced with distinction before the court the dignity of ‘Senior Counsel.’ As such, he is of the opinion that the President Granger’s announcement last December that Forde, Ali, Bacchus and Moore will be appointed Senior with effect from January 1, 2020 is unlawful.

“There is no statutory or other power conferred on the President of Guyana whether as President or otherwise to make such a decision or to appoint Attorneys-at-Law to the dignity of Senior Counsel, and the decision by the President as communicated in the said publication is entirely void and of no effect,” Jonas submitted to the court.
He added: “Insofar as the President, a member of the executive, purports to make a decision within the province of the inherent discretion of the High Court, his trespass into the realm of the judiciary violates Article 122 of the Constitution, and is illegal and void.”

SOLE DISCRETION OF THE PRESIDENT
However, in January 2019, when a controversy erupted over allegation that Jones was “disrobed” of the noble title of Senior Counsel, the Attorney General Basil Williams had explained that it is the sole discretion of the President to bestow the title of Senior Counsel on Attorneys-at-Law.
The Attorney General had explained that the procedure includes the chancellor of the judiciary after consultations with the judges, sending to the President a list of names of counsel she was recommending to be elevated to the dignity of Senior Counsel.

Williams explained that the protocol staff at the Ministry of the Presidency would then contact those individuals who have been recommended, to ascertain whether they would accept the honour before the list goes to the President for his final approval.

It was noted that the list then goes to the President, and he, in his own deliberate judgement would consider the names and determine who he would elevate. “In determining names, he is guided by certain criteria: length of time of practice; quality of that practice and integrity.” Williams had said.

In the case of Jonas in 2019, he was not among those shortlisted, and therefore was not selected to be elevated to the dignity of Senior Counsel.
Since taking office, President David Granger has been conferring upon deserving attorneys the title of Senior Counsel. His first announcement was made in 2016 bringing an end to a 20-year hiatus. Among those conferred with the dignity of Senior Counsel are: Neil Boston, Charles Fung-A-Fat, Justice Alison Roxane McLean George-Wiltshire, Clifton Mortimer Llewelyn John, Rafiq Turhan Khan, Vidyanand Persaud, Rosalie Althea Robertson, Justice Claudette Margot Cecile Singh, Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Basil Williams, Kalam Azad Juman Yassin, Josephine Whitehead, Fitz Le Roy Peters, Andrew Mark Fitzgerald Pollard, Shalimar Ali-Hack, Stephen Fraser, Carole James-Boston, Robert Ramcharran and Rajendra Poonai.