AG: Hamel-Smith gave advice on removing CJ

In an affidavit filed yesterday, Jeremie said that at his request, Hamel-Smith and DPP Geoffrey Henderson attended a meeting at his office on January 4. At the meeting, the DPP gave a brief account of his conversations with Chief Justice Sat Sharma.

According to Jeremie, "Justice Hamel-Smith was quite alarmed and expressed the view that the conversations which we said the Chief Justice had with us were quite improper and indeed the mere fact that the meetings took place at all, was improper.

"I told Justice Hamel-Smith that I had spoken to the Prime Minister about the matter and that it was the Prime Minister’s position that this was a matter for the Judiciary to sort out. Justice Hamel-Smith pointed out that the Judiciary could not do anything because the Chief Justice and not a judge, was involved but that the Constitution provided a mechanism in Section 137 which gave the Prime Minister the responsibility for initiating proceedings against the Chief Justice."

Jeremie said Justice Hamel-Smith suggested that he (Jeremie) and the DPP should both reduce to writing their accounts of what transpired at the meetings with the Chief Justice in case they were asked about it sometime in the future.

Jeremie said the following day, he met with Senior Counsel and after informing him of developments, he advised that for the Prime Minister to invoke Section 137, both the AG and the DPP would have to provide statements, copies of which had to be sent to Sharma for his comment.

On another note, Jeremie said that following the Chief Justice’s address at the opening of the last law term, he thought relations between the Executive and the Judiciary had improved. He denied there was antipathy between the Executive and the Prime Minister on one hand, and the Chief Justice on the other hand.

Jeremie said the Chief Justice did raise the issue of the appointment of "silk," and that there was need to appoint his nephew to Senior Counsel. The AG said he was not inclined to advise the Prime Minister to appoint his nephew. He said the Chief Justice also raised this issue in 2003.