Steps should be taken to appoint appeal court judges

Dear Editor,

Now that acting Chancellor Carl Singh has gone into retirement and Roxanne George-Wiltshire has been appointed Chief Justice acting it is expected that steps will be taken to appoint two judges to the Court of Appeal; the delay in appointments has been preventing the hearing of dozens of appeals.

There is also need to appoint a few more High Court judges in order to dispose of the huge number of backlog cases.

The Court of Appeal has been in limbo for quite some time because of the vacancies, and legal sources feel that the government was not too anxious to make the appointments until it was satisfied with the selection of judges.

On November 25 last year, there were press reports in which Minister of State Joseph Harmon stated that the President will move with reasonable speed on the appointment of judges recommended by the Judicial Services Commission. Attorney General Basil Williams stated that the President has a discretion in the appointment of judges, but that contention was refuted by former Speaker Ralph Ramkarran, a senior counsel, as well as former Attorney General Anil Nandlall, who repeatedly accused Williams who was recently elevated to the inner bar, of incompetence and lack of knowledge.

On the other hand the current Attorney General is critical of his predecessor for failing to keep him abreast of activities of the Ministry of Justice before the new administration took office.

It is anticipated that the courts will be busy in the next months and years in light of the large number of pending cases now on the docket in nearly all the courts, and the extensive investigations now going on in relation to corruption by members of the previous

administration. However according to Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo, the government is targeting opposition politicians instead of going after drug lords and money launderers.

The State Assets Recovery Unit (SARU) and Special Organized Crime Unit (SOCU) were established to track down persons who defraud the government and sources say that there are dozens of persons and business houses involved in dishonest schemes.

The Judicial Services Commission comprises the Chancellor (acting)Yonette Cummings-Edwards; Chief Justice (acting) Roxanne George-Wiltshire; retired justices Prem Persaud and Lennox Perry; and Carvil Duncan of the Public Service Commission.