Jonas to write President over SC appointment

… appears not to have accepted it on technicality

One day before he is expected to be conferred with Silk by President Irfaan Ali, Attorney-at-Law Timothy Jonas said he has not accepted the appointment.
When asked by Village Voice Guyana on Thursday whether he accepted President Ali’s appointment, Jonas responded in the negative.

“No,” he told this publication, while adding that he will address the issue in a Letter to the Editor that will be published in the Stabroek News on Friday.
Asked again whether he would not be accepting the title Senior Counsel, Jonas while backpedaling on his earlier response, said what was reported in the press was not entirely accurate. He iterated his intention to address the issue of his appointment in a Letter to be published in the Stabroek Newspaper.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Office of the President said the President after consultation with the Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards, Chancellor of the Judiciary (ag), will appoint Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Mohabir Anil Nandlall, M.P. and Timothy Munro Jonas, as Senior Counsel with effect from Friday, October 30, 2020.

It was explained that the Attorney General and Jonas’ appointments are as a result of their demonstrable knowledge of the law and exemplary erudition and diligence in the practice of the law and by virtue of their distinguished contributions to the growth and development of Guyana’s jurisprudence and constitutional democracy.

But the President’s announcement comes approximately two months after, Jonas, in a Fixed Date Application (FDA) filed in the High Court, requested an order of certiorari directed to the Attorney General, as the legal custodian of the State, to quash the appointments made by former President David Granger on December 31, 2019 of Attorneys, Jameela Alli, Roysdale Forde, Mursaline Bacchus, and Stanley Moore as Senior Counsel (S.C).

Among other things, Jonas called for the decision by the President to be deemed entirely void and of no legal effect by the Court. Jonas stated further that as the President and a member of the Executive, Granger’s decision to appoint Senior Counsel trespasses into the realm of the judiciary and violate Article 122 (A) of the Constitution of Guyana which expresses the doctrine of the separation of powers.

Back in 2019, there was some confusion as to whether Jonas’ name was on the list of persons identified by Granger to be appointed Senior Counsel. The Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams, SC had explained that a protocol officer had contacted Jonas and might have unintentionally conveyed to him that he was approved to be elevated to Senior Counsel when in fact he was merely recommended for the honour. That recommendation was still to be considered by the then President.

Jonas had referred to the alleged occurrence as “vindictive politics,” one which has “tarnished the whole image of Silk.”
Williams had explained too that the bestowing of Senior Counsel is the sole discretion of the President noting 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 Senior Counsel.