National Assembly greenlights amendments to Court of Appeal Bill

The ‘long overdue’ Court of Appeal (Amendment) Bill of 2022 was on Monday passed in the National Assembly to improve the efficiency of court proceedings.

This comes in response to the mammoth caseload on the Court of Appeal docket and the small complement of judges to dispose of matters in a timely manner. Currently, only three Permanent Appellate judges sit on the Court of Appeal.

The Court of Appeal (Amendment) Bill of 2022 amends section 34(1) of the Court of Appeal Act, Cap. 3:01, which presently provides that the judges of the Court of Appeal shall include no more than five Justices of Appeal.

It is aimed at increasing the number of appellate court judges to at least five and no more than nine.

Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Mohabir Anil Nandlall, SC, said the increase in the complement of judges is long overdue, amid a tremendous increase in litigation.

“In my view, the propensity to litigate in Guyana has grown progressively over the years. It is, therefore, both unreasonable and impossible to expect the same number of judges to cope efficiently in the face of such an increase in workload.

“Our government has been a willing and reliable partner in supporting the judiciary in every initiative designed to improve the justice system and bring to its processes greater dispatch.”

The AG reminded that the administration spearheaded the implementation of several systems to advance this agenda, such as the introduction of the audio-visual recording system, which allowed for the automatic recording of proceedings in court, with a written transcript being produced, and saved time, as judges were no longer required to take notes using ‘longhand’.

Similar measures included the introduction of new civil procedure rules and an increase in the complement of High Court judges from 12 to 20.

Further, the government is also building out the infrastructural framework to foster greater efficiency in the court proceedings, as millions have been expended for the expansion and renovation of the Court of Appeal building, located at Kingston, Georgetown.

These improvements will also see the construction of a new courtroom and larger facilities to allow for simultaneous sittings of the court of appeal.

“It would be reasonable for the public to expect that once more judges are appointed, there will be greater alacrity in the hearing and determination of cases,” the AG said, adding that it’s the government’s hope for systems to be put in place to allow the Appeal Court Justices to sit in different counties to hear matters.

Adding his voice in support of the bill, Member of Parliament, Sanjeev Datadin said the heavy backlog of cases puts strain on the appeal court judges, and the amendment will play a key role in fostering efficient administration of justice.

“So, what we need to do is make sure that those obstacles are removed. We need to make sure that we put it on a little even footing, so that when we have appeals, and we have a larger complement of judges, hopefully, the administration of justice overall will improve. We will get quicker rulings, more written decisions, and the people of Guyana will get their issues resolved in a more timely manner,”Datadin stated.

Also supporting the bill were Opposition Members of Parliament, Khemraj Ramjattan, and Geeta Chandan-Edmond.