CCJ chides Guyana's attorney general for premature release of judgement

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) Wednesday criticised Guyana's Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, for his premature release of an embargoed ruling regarding an election petition.

“This is totally unacceptable and any further action of the Court will be contemplated. For example, is it possible in cases like this to send an advanced copy in Guyana? I mean this is really serious business and we cannot have it and this is something we will discuss in a broader form,” said Justice Jacob Witt.

On the Facebook page of the Attorney General on Tuesday, it was disclosed that the “CCJ upholds our submissions in Petition No 99: Court of Appeal decision reversed…the people won again.”

All of the attorneys in the election petition matter were provided with an advanced embargoed copy of the CCCJ's decision that they were asked not to share.

Justice Witt said the Facebook post created the impression that the attorney general had privileged access to information from the CCJ, while his colleague Justice Maureen Rajnauth-Lee said she was concerned about the adverse impact of the release of the decision on the attorney general's Facebook page.

“Apart from the apology and all those other things that I have heard today, I am very, very concerned about the impact of the integrity of the court and I would like Counsel here to come up with something that will remedy that impact,” Justice Rajnauth-Lee said.

The CCJ, which is Guyana's highest court, said it expects Nandlall to apologise publicly on his Facebook page, based on a commitment by Guyana's Solicitor General Nigel Hawke, who told the court that it was a mistake by an administrator of the attorney general's Facebook page and there was no attempt to bring the Court into disrepute.

But attorney, Selwyn Pieters, said Nandlall's apology was not accepted as it has injured the image of the court.

“What that premature release did- it was shared all over the Internet- what it did was put the administration of justice into disrepute because if Your Honours' staff read the comments, it almost seem like the Attorney General had some privy,” said Peters who also practises in Canada.

He said in Canada lawyers are required to give a written undertaking that they would not release embargoed judgements.

The Attorney General was not present during the hearing.

In its ruling on the substantive matter before it, the Trinidad-based CCJ allowed the appeal against the decision of the Court of Appeal of Guyana regarding the election petitions filed following the controversial March 2 regional and general elections in the country.

Follow The Gleaner on Twitter and Instagram @JamaicaGleaner and on Facebook @GleanerJamaica. Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1-876-499-0169 or email us at onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com or editors@gleanerjm.com.