{"id":1613,"date":"2009-09-19T09:07:07","date_gmt":"2009-09-19T13:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=1613"},"modified":"2009-09-19T09:07:07","modified_gmt":"2009-09-19T13:07:07","slug":"pms-veto-unfathomable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=1613","title":{"rendered":"PM’s Veto Unfathomable"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Onika James
\nSeptember 19, 2009 – newsday.co.tt<\/a><\/i>
\nTrinidad and Tobago News Blog
\nwww.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

House<\/a>Prime Minister Patrick Manning\u2019s veto of Carla Brown-Antoine for the post of Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the Government\u2019s \u201cretrograde step\u201d to set up a Ministry of Justice are \u201cdark clouds\u201d over the Judiciary and the administration of justice, Law Association president Martin Daly SC warned yesterday.<\/p>\n

As he criticised Manning\u2019s \u201cexercise of the constitutional veto\u201d of Brown-Antoine as DPP, Daly praised Chief Justice Ivor Archie\u2019s \u201cwonderful dissertation\u201d in the defence of the independence of the Judiciary.
\n
\nDaly, however, did not spare some members of the judicial arm and took a swipe at a judge for his \u201cill-considered statements\u201d on an affidavit which superior courts had ruled were \u201cirrelevant and scandalous\u201d, saying his action was one of the \u201ccloudy\u201d events which hung over the Judiciary in recent months.<\/p>\n

The senior counsel launched these salvos during a special sitting to welcome Brown-Antoine on her appointment as a judge of the High Court at the Hall of Justice, Port-of-Spain yesterday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an occasion of enormous delight to the council and members of the Law Association,\u201d Daly said in a brief speech which ranged from lofty praises to Brown-Antoine to strong condemnation of the Executive.<\/p>\n

He described Brown-Antoine\u2019s elevation to the bench as \u201ca burst of warm and brilliant sunshine in the midst of what have been several cloudy months of the Judiciary\u201d and commended her \u201cquiet dignity\u201d in accepting Manning\u2019s veto.<\/p>\n

Manning rejected the Judicial and Legal Services Commission\u2019s nomination of Brown-Antoine for the substantive post of DPP, after she had been acting in the position since January 5 of this year. Manning also vetoed the JLSC\u2019s subsequent nomination of Deputy DPP Roger Gaspard.<\/p>\n

Daly said for \u201csome undisclosed and unfathomable reason\u201d Brown-Antoine\u2019s confirmation as DPP \u201cdid not find favour\u201d and there was an \u201cirony in this\u201d since the \u201csubject matter of a constitutional veto is entitled to know the reasons for the exercise of the constitutional power.\u201d<\/p>\n

The country, he said, \u201csuffered a grevious loss when it was deprived of the confirmation of Brown-Antoine\u2019s services as Director of Public Prosecutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe damage to the office of DPP is continuing and is highly regrettable. We thank God that we have now gained your services as a High Court judge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daly said Brown-Antoine is already in \u201cthe law reports\u201d for her decision to prosecute former chief justice Satnarine Sharma for trying to influence the outcome of an integrity matter involving former prime minister Basdeo Panday, while she was Deputy DPP. Sharma was subsequently cleared.<\/p>\n

He said if she had challenged Manning\u2019s veto he was sure she would have been successful.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am confident that Your Ladyship\u2019s name would have again entered the law reports, this time, not as a respondent, but as a claimant in a public law case, challenging, successfully I am sure, the (Prime Minister\u2019s) failure to give reasons for the exercise of the constitutional veto.\u201d<\/p>\n

He further raised concerns not only about the power of the Executive over the appointment of a DPP but of a Solicitor General as well. Both posts remain vacant.<\/p>\n

As the Chief Justice did in his address at the opening of the law term on Wednesday, Daly also took a swipe at the Government\u2019s working document on a draft constitution as it relates to the Judiciary. \u201cThe intention of the political Executive, if permitted, to take the retrograde step of establishing a Ministry of Justice to interfere in the institutional independence of the judiciary.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the Chief Justice\u2019s stinging condemnation of the draft constitution was a \u201cwonderful dissertation…on the independence of the Judiciary.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Chief Justice had said several clauses in the document were \u201cworrisome\u201d and threatened to strip his office of its authority and undermine the rights of citizens.<\/p>\n

Although he did not name him, Daly referred to Justice Rajendra Narine\u2019s statements on an affidavit which the Appeal Court and the Privy Council ordered be \u201cstruck out\u201d of Jamaat al Muslimeen leader Abu Bakr\u2019s challenge of the State\u2019s sale of his properties to recover $32 million for damage to buildings during the 1990 attempted coup.<\/p>\n

Narine, who is now an Appeal Court judge, said the allegations in the affidavit should be investigated and had copies sent to the police and office of the DPP. Among the allegations was that the Prime Minister had promised Bakr to forgive the debt in exchange for the Jamaat\u2019s support in the 2007 general election.<\/p>\n

In reference to Narine, Daly said, \u201cIll-considered statements by persons who should know better, that struck out affidavits may not be used,\u201d was another cloudy moment in the Judiciary\u2019s recent history. Narine\u2019s statements were also addressed earlier this week by Attorney General John Jeremie who advised the Parliament that he had written the Chief Justice on the matter.<\/p>\n

Given the publicity of these recent events, Daly said the Law Association would give a statement soon.<\/p>\n

Source: www.newsday.co.tt\/news\/0,107589.html<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Trinidad and Tobago News Blog’s URL for this post:
\nwww.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=1613<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Onika James September 19, 2009 – newsday.co.tt Trinidad and Tobago News Blog www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog Prime Minister Patrick Manning\u2019s veto of Carla Brown-Antoine for the post of Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the Government\u2019s \u201cretrograde step\u201d to set up a Ministry of Justice are \u201cdark clouds\u201d over the Judiciary and the administration of justice, Law … Continue reading PM’s Veto Unfathomable<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,1,186,30,7],"tags":[192,191,82,1015,49],"class_list":["post-1613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-finance","category-general-tt","category-law","category-pnm","category-politics","tag-dpp","tag-martin-daly-sc","tag-patrick-manning","tag-politics","tag-tt-govt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1613"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1614,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1613\/revisions\/1614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}