The ongoing controversy over the Judicial and Legal Service Commission’s (JLSC) handling of judicial appointments took another turn yesterday, as attorneys representing a former government minister Devant Maharaj sought a last-minute injunction to stop the swearing-in of two new judges this morning.
Mere hours after President Anthony Carmona’s office announced the ceremony for 11.30 am today, attorneys representing Maharaj wrote to him suggesting he defer the appointments as they may be affected by his lawsuit challenging the JLSC’s composition.
The T&T Guardian understands the two candidates, who were not named in the release, are Jacqueline Wilson and Kathy-Ann Waterman-Latchu. Wilson is the former solicitor general of the Cayman Islands, while Waterman-Latchu is a former deputy Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and last served as a judge in the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court.
After receiving no response by a deadline given, Maharaj’s lawyers filed the application and sought an emergency hearing. The application was initially randomly assigned to Justice Margaret Mohammed but she refused, instead suggesting it be heard by Justice Frank Seepersad, who was assigned to Maharaj’s substantive case.
A hearing was convened around 8 pm at the Hall of Justice in Port-of-Spain last night to facilitate Seepersad, who had to preside via video conferencing as he was in Tobago for an unrelated case yesterday.
The T&T Guardian understands submissions on the injunction were expected to take several hours, as the Law Association, Office of the Attorney General, attorneys for Carmona and the JLSC were to respond to the application. The decision on the injunction was expected to be delivered after midnight.
In his lawsuit, Maharaj is claiming the JLSC is performing its duties without its full complement of five members. Ramlogan has noted that shortly after the lawsuit was filed last month the JLSC admitted it was operating without its full complement, leading to the appointment of Ernest Koylass, SC, on May 17.
The other members of the JLSC are Chief Justice Ivor Archie, retired Judges Roger Hamel-Smith and Humphrey Stollmeyer and head of the Public Service Commission (PSC) Maureen Manchouck.
Maharaj is also challenging Stollmeyer’s position, as the Constitution states the JLSC members should be the Chief Justice, head of the PSC, a sitting or retired judge and two “persons with legal qualification...not in active practice as such”. His lawyers claim a retired judge does not fall in the last category.
The latest debacle over the JLSC’s selection of judges comes while it is still reeling from the controversy over the appointment and subsequent resignation of former chief magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar.
Last Thursday, the Law Association passed five motions of no confidence in Archie and the JLSC for its handling of this matter and called on Archie and the JLSC to resign. A defiant Archie has rebuked the suggestion.
Commenting on the issue during a UNC Monday Forum in San Juan last night, Opposition leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar slammed the decision to appoint new judges given the ongoing fiasco over Ayers-Caesar’s appointment.
“Can you believe that after the fiasco that just happened, with the JLSC now under the court for being wrongfully constituted, the composition and the members of the JLSC, the ones who recommend judges for appointment, the fiasco just witnessed that has brought the judiciary into disrepute, they going to recommend again?” Persad-Bissessar said.
“Shameless, totally shameless and untenable…that is a slap in the face of the people of our country.”
—With reporting by Rhondor Dowlat
