Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley holds the view that the executive arm of the State may very well have to intervene in the ongoing controversy in the Judicial and Legal Service Commission (JLSC).
But the PM also admits that while he has power to intervene in the matter, he is not quite sure whether it is the right thing to do.
Rowley was weighing in on the sudden resignations of retired Justices of Appeal Roger Hamel Smith and Humphrey Stollymeyer from the JLSC on returning home yesterday, after attending a four-day Caricom inter-sessional meeting in Grenada.
Both men tendered their resignations to President Anthony Carmona on June 22 and they took effect on June 30.
Addressing the media at the Piarco International Airport yesterday, Rowley said having retired to bed early on Thursday after battling the flu, he woke up yesterday only to discover that the JLSC was now not properly constituted.
“And that information to this effect had been available since the 22nd of June. Now this is not a matter for the Government. I know there are those who would blame the Government for this kind of development,” the PM said.
When things like these surface, Rowley said “these are the contributors to the populating losing confidence in the institutions of the State. Because if this matter is ongoing … as it has been and there are queries, calls and demands and people putting in their letters of resignation without here... trying to engage anybody in controversy.”
He said, however, that he would have thought the population would have been told immediately about the resignations. In doing so, Rowley said one could have easily followed the process “without acrimony and suspicion.”
However, the PM said when the resignations came into effect on June 30 but the public is informed on July 6, “the issue becomes now one of suspicion as to what has been happening in the interim.” That suspicion, he said, could be completely “unnecessary or it could be very troubling that something would have been happening.”
Rowley described the ongoing brouhaha in the JSLC as “institutional unnecessaries which could lead to paralysis and loss of confidence.”
But the PM questioned why these things were in fact happening.
“So now, we are told that we had the resignations. That means there is no JLSC and of course, the process of consultation, which I suspect…and here I am stepping out of my crease to say that the information on the (June) 22nd indicating a coming into effect on the (June) 30th…I read that to be that space was being created for appointments to be made so there would have been no significant hiatus.”
He said by June 30, the county should have been notified of the resignations to avoid suspicion, stating that the institutions of the State ought to have been more responsive in disseminating timely information and full disclosure.
Told that he had the power to initiate an investigation into the
Ex-JLSC members bowed to public pressure but...
Justice Roger Hamel-SmithChief Justice and JLSC, Rowley said he has power to do a lot of things.
“But the questions is, is it the appropriate thing to do? I will only do that if it is the best option under the circumstances. There is a difficulty in the judiciary … there is no question about that, but the executive jumping in to initiate an investigation might only worsen the situation rather than improve it.”
Rowley said, however, that he would continue to monitor the matter.
“When I spoke to you all about the Chinese wall that I observing, it is because not being a lawyer …just being a citizen and an office holder…holding high office in this country, my unadvised guess at that stage was that this matter may end up in the lap of the executive some time and if that happens it would then become a matter for the executive to deal with.”
With fresh controversy swirling, Rowley said he had seen a piece of correspondence which indicated that the 53 criminal matters that former chief magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar left undone may only be solved by Parliament, which he said he would leave in the hands of Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi.
“And if that is so…it is for office holders who are involved in this matter to bring it to a head and have it dealt with, even if it means that the Parliament has to come back into special session.
But to pretend that there is some other way when there is no other way, is bordering on description which I do not want to join this morning. There is a problem and it ought to be addressed. And the best way might not be an investigation at this time.”
Questioned if things escalate if he would consider his own intervention, Rowley said, “No, I don’t. I would be advised by the office of the Attorney General on this. These are matters I don’t advise myself.”