Mohabir Anil Nandlall S.C. Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs wrote a lengthy missive ( yesterday) critical of the Magistracy and pronouncing on the doctrine of Stare Decisis. He appears upset after Magistrate Leron Daly upheld the no-case submission filed by Winston Jordan’s attorneys, Senior Counsel Roysdale Forde and Dawn Cush. This was yet another political case wasting precious court time and resources and was rightly disposed of in the way in which the Magistrate did. There was no case to answer.
However, since Anil referred to a written ruling delivered by the acting Hon. Chief Justice (ag) Roxane George S.C in the matter of Winston Brassington and Dr. Ashni Singh v Munilal Persaud, Commissioner of Police, Ann McLennan, Chief Magistrate and Shalimar Ali-Hack, Director of Public Prosecutions 2018-HC-DEM-CIV-FDA-757.
Lets look at how he conveniently treats precedents. You can’t be selective on these things Anil as it bring your very credibility into question and simply adds more currency to the criticism that was levelled in your direction by the Caribbean Court of Justice last October.
In Civil Appeal No. 50 of 2021 Attorney General and Sarah Browne & Ramkissoon v. Christopher Jones & Speaker of the Nat. Assembly, close to two hours was spent on January 26, 2023 arguing whether the Court of Appeal Order in AG & Speaker of Nat. Assembly v. Desmond Morian, January 23rd, 2020 of Justices of Appeal D. Gregory and R. Persaud and Justice F. Holder (ad hoc) is binding precedent. I had written in our argument that “The law is settled based on the jurisprudence and there is no change in our constitutional structure that overrides the case law the Appellant seeks to impugn.” Written submissions, para. 2.
Justice of Appeal, Dawn Gregory, who was a part of the panel of Appellate Judges in the case of Desmond Morian, said when the matter was reviewed, it was found that the Court of Appeal, at the time, affirmed the decision of the late Chief Justice Ian Chang, and in doing so, took into consideration not only the issue of jurisdiction, but also the substantive issues.
Your team then asked the Court of Appeal to reconsider its holding in Morian. The Court of Appeal did not find it necessary to do so and orally ruled as such.
Stop attacking the judiciary including the Magistracy.
The Caribbean Court of Justice had this to say in October 2022 concerning conduct for which you have not taken responsibility and sought to blame it on a Facebook administrator even though Court Judgments goes to Attorneys of Record and not facebook.
“The premature, unauthorised disclosure of the result of the litigation is inexcusable. It betrays the confidence of the Court and, given the fact that it emanated from the Facebook account of the
person holding the office of the Attorney General, it serves to bring the entire administration of justice into disrepute.”
Confidence in the Justice System is low. The compliment of judges and magistrates are low. There is no a functioning Judicial Service Commission. There is no substantive Chief Justice. There is not a substantive Chancellor of the Judiciary. There is not a functioning Public Service Commission. There is not a functioning Police Service Commission.
Let the Judiciary with its limited and strained resources do its work. There was no case against Jordan in the same manner there was no case against you when you were accused wrongfully of stealing those law book from the AG Chambers when you left in 2015. If you are not satisfied with a decision, there are mechanisms to appeal it upwards. You need to stop what you are doing on issues in the news and in your press releases, it does nothing to enhance your standing in society nor confidence in our judiciary.
By the way Anil, can we hear your thoughts on the release of the Brian Richards interview by the Major Crimes Unit of the Guyana Police Force to the Newsroom?
Recommended reading: Thomas, Brent; Specialist Shooters Training Centre Limited v The Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago; The Director of Public Prosecutions, PER Rampersad, Devindra J
( Source: Selwyn Pieters’ Facebook)
