Equal Opportunity Act must be made law says Ramesh

Former Attorney General Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj renewed his call yesterday for the Equal Opportunity Act (EOA) to be made law. This time he has taken the fight to the Court of Appeal, where he argued yesterday that the act is an act of the State and the Executive could not disavow the Act before the court which is an arm of the State — the Government could not ask the court to say that its own legislation was unconstitutional. Government, Maharaj argued, was infringing on the doctrine of separation of powers by usurping the functions of Parliament. He told the Court of Appeal that Justice Gregory Smith, in his ruling as he did in the lower court, has given Government the machinery which it can use to escape its accountability to the Parliament for its policy to amend, or repeal an Act. 

In other words, he said, a government could, by this ruling, make an application to the High Court for the court to declare any Act of Parliament unconstitutional, and if it is successful the Government would not have to face the scrutiny and accountability of Parliament for its policy to repeal the law. The court, comprising Chief Justice Satnarine Sharma, Justice Ivor Archie and Justice Allan Mendonca, is hearing arguments by Maharaj in an appeal in a constitutional motion filed on behalf of former Caroni workers and several visually impaired persons against the decision of Smith to dismiss their  motion which sought protection under the EOA. The EOA was passed in 2000 and came into force in 2001 when it was assented to and proclaimed by the President, but to date, Government has not appointed the EOA commission or its tribunal.

Included in Maharaj’s team are attorneys Rikki Harnanan, Darrel Allahar and Vijaya Maharaj instructed by Alvin Ramroop. Smith had upheld the arguments of counsel for the Government, Russell Martineau SC, that the legislation was unconstitutional since it was not passed by a special majority. Maharaj told their lordships that the Executive always had, and still has the exclusive power to amend or to repeal and re-enact, or to simply repeal the act by returning to the legislature in which it holds  a majority if it finds the act to be defective, and a mistake as to its legality at the time it came into force. When hearing resumes today, Martineau will start his submission.  He leads attorneys Deborah Peake, Karlene Seenath, and Carol Soverall from the Solicitor General’s office and Sean Julien from the Chief State Solicitor’s office.