Government isn’t stalling the process for substantively appointing a Chancellor of the Judiciary and a Chief Justice (CJ) and will commence the process when the constitutional commissions are effectively set up, President Irfaan Ali says.
“We are not at the stage of addressing those issues as yet. There is nothing stalling, it is just that we have not commenced that as yet. We are trying to complete the Judicial Service Commission. These things must be in place almost instantaneously,” the President said when asked on Tuesday by Stabroek News about the delay in the appointments.
“Now we have the clearance, we are hoping to get the Teaching Service Commission constituted. We are hoping to have the Judicial Service Commission in full effect and then we will move our focus,” he added.
Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards and Justice Roxane George SC were respectively appointed acting Chancellor of the Judiciary and Chief Justice back in 2016 and 2017, following the retirement of then acting Chancellor Carl Singh, who was also never confirmed despite having served for 12 years.
Guyana has not had a confirmed Chancellor for 17 years.
There have been calls from several sections of society for the substantive appointments of Chancellor and Chief Justice but successive governments have failed to do so.
In a letter dated May 12, 2022, and addressed to Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance Gail Teixeira, Leader of the Opposition Aubrey Norton signalled his intention to agree to confirm the appointment of the two justices as Chancellor and Chief Justice.
In June of this year, Ali had said that while he has no issue appointing the top judicial officers, he would do so when the “right time comes.”
But former Speaker of the National Assembly and prominent attorney at law Ralph Ramkarran SC last month pointed out that there is nothing stopping the appointments.
“There is currently no obstacle to confirming these appointments or, if the Government so chooses, to seek out other candidates to place before the Leader of the Opposition for his consent, which is required under the constitution. While at the current time the Leader of the Opposition has declined to be consulted, he has publicly stated that he has no objection to the confirmation of the appointments of the current acting incumbents,” he had written in his Conversation Tree Column of the August 21st 2022 edition of the Stabroek News.
He noted that while the President has indicated that he is not yet ready to deal with these matters, Ali has outlined when he will be ready or whether there is any particular obstacle to proceeding with appointments.
“The President’s consideration of the matter in his ‘deliberate judgement’ cannot be open- ended. The President has a lawful responsibility under the constitution to make these appointments. It is not contemplated by the constitution that if there is no obstacle to the appointments, that the President’s ‘deliberate judgment’ can serve to indefinitely delay the performance of this vital constitutional duty. The Attorney General is expected to advise accordingly,” Ramkarran said.
Ramkarran had also highlighted that the Judicial Service Commission was not appointed and that it seemed that matters of the judiciary were not important.
“The failure to appoint a Chancellor and Chief Justice and the Judicial Service Commission is a clear indication that the collective does not consider the judiciary as an agency of any importance or its problems as a matter of urgency, notwithstanding its constitutional status. This is extremely shortsighted. Investors are flooding into Guyana. Among their prominent concerns are the integrity of the security forces and the efficiency of the judiciary. The former is under public scrutiny. Problems affecting the latter remain unaddressed for no known reason,” he said.
