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“IT IS CLOSE to boiling point.”
That’s the dramatic language used on August 18 by Justice Minister Devesh Maharaj to describe a rather dull complaint: the setting up of spaces in police stations for people to access court virtually. But it might have been a Freudian slip. The minister’s description perfectly captures the mood in relation to the judiciary in recent times.
Storm clouds have gathered ahead of the opening of the law term, which is due on September 16 at the National Academy for the Performing Arts.
At a political meeting on July 7, the Prime Minister announced the introduction of a chancellor to “oversee the day-to-day logistics and running of the courts.” But there has been no real elaboration.
That same month, Udecott abruptly cancelled an upgrade project for the San Fernando Supreme Court. A press release war erupted over who was to blame, with the judiciary accusing the company of “misleading.”
This week, Mr Maharaj made heavy weather of the use of investigation and ID parade rooms at the Besson Street Police Station, Port of Spain, for virtual access to judges, claiming the practice is “highly irregular and very inconvenient.”
It was an echo of similar charges made by Minister of Homeland Security Roger Alexander, a former police officer, in May. Mr Alexander strangely believes online proceedings, which save transport costs and are standard globally, are too much to bear for officers, who are “cramped for space.”
Separately, the Law Association on August 11 wrote Chief Justice Ivor Archie, calling for “urgent action” over the Waterfront Judicial Centre’s facilities in downtown Port of Spain. Meanwhile, in court filings lodged on August 15, Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard, SC, was forced to defend delays in the proceedings surrounding the 2014 murder of Dana Seetahal, SC.
Individually, these matters are bad enough. But taken together, they paint a picture of a judiciary besieged by a litany of issues and challenges coming from all fronts. It is a picture the country could do without when there is a backlog of 400 capital matters alone at the DPP’s office, not to mention 500 pending indictments.
Chief Justice Ivor Archie was the youngest CJ in TT’s history, being appointed at 47 in 2008 when Patrick Manning was PM.
Over almost two decades, he has not buckled under serious challenges, including an attempt to have him impeached, backed by the association, and a recent Privy Council ruling in relation to Marcia Ayers-Caesar, which affirmed judicial independence.
Nonetheless, all eyes will be on what is to unfold in September. Months after a new UNC government came to power, few moments in the judiciary have been as filled with conjecture and as tense.
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