Govt, Opposition continue tax squabble

Justices of Appeal Peter Jamadhar, Gregory Smith and Judith Jones are expected to hear the State’s appeal of Justice Frank Seepersad’s granting of leave to former government minister Devant Maharaj to challenge the implementation of the property tax and the temporary injunction.

On Saturday, the Opposition accused the government of colluding with the Judiciary over the filing of the appeal. Yesterday, former attorney general Anand Ramlogan, SC, penned a strong letter to the Registrar of the Supreme Court, questioning whether the Government had, “privileged access to information based on secret information with the court,” so that it could publicly announce that the appeal would take place at 9 am today.

He called for this matter to be brought to the attention of Chief Justice Ivor Archie and the Justices of Appeal presiding over this matter, so that some clarity could be provided. Ramlogan hoped the Judiciary would respond before today’s hearing because there appears to have been, “some level of improper and unfair interference by the Government in the case management of this appeal.” He reiterated his allegation that the Government and/or its attorneys had privileged access to the Court of Appeal, “in a timely and politically convenient manner.” Ramlogan is leading the legal team that is representing his former People’s Partnership (PP) Cabinet colleague Devant Maharaj, who filed a constitutional motion to stop the property tax’s implementation. The Government countered with equally strong statements from Finance Minister Colm Imbert and Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi. Imbert is currently acting as prime minister while Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley is in New York attending the graduation of his daughter Sonel.

Rowley is due to return home tomorrow.

Imbert told Newsday, “I have checked the video of Friday’s parliamentary session and confirmed that I had already left the House when (Oropouche East MP) Roodal Moonilal first mentioned the decision of Justice Seepeersad and I did not utter a single word.” He said Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar”is clearly confused” to believe that he made such a comment in Parliament. His position was further supported by an official statement from the Finance Ministry. In that statement, Imbert said when he was contacted by the media last Friday evening for a comment on Justice Seepersad’s decision, he said the decision, “will be appealed.” Imbert made it clear that he never said, “it had been appealed” since the Court’s Registry would have been closed at that time. The statement said lawyers for the Commissioner of Valuations made efforts to get an urgent hearing before the Court of Appeal last Friday.

However they were advised that the Court of Appeal would convene today at 9 am. The statement said the Commissioner of Valuation’s attorneys have since advised that the notice of appeal was sent by e-mail to the Registrar of the Court on Saturday. A copy of the notice was sent to Maharaj’s attorneys about today’s hearing. Al-Rawi rejected Ramlogan’s charge about Government having “privileged access” regarding the scheduling of today’s hearing.

The AG said his predecessor has, “a history of conducting litigation in the newspapers” and he is not going down that road. He said all of the pre-action protocol letters sent to the Government on property tax, “have been provided by the media first” rather than the regular mail service. Al-Rawi said Ramlogan’s tactics on this occasion are similar to the ligitation he pursued against Rowley when the PP was in office. He said Ramlogan later withdrew all those matters after the PP lost the September 2015 general elections and this was not known for many months.

Al-Rawi said Ramlogan “seeks to make a mockery” of established protocols for the hearing of urgent matter by the Court of Appeal and the High Court. Speaking later to reporters after a function in San Fernando, he said, “The truth is, we have followed all the proper processes.” The AG continued, “Anybody who has been to court on emergency bases will testify to this for you and really, they are condemning some of the most notable attorneys in TT.” He reiterated his condemnation of Ramlogan’s allegation and advised reporters,”not to pay attention to foolishness.” Al-Rawi charged that Persad-Bissessar was “re-inventing the method by which people can approach the court.” The AG recalled that when he spoke about the appeal in the House last Friday, he was “very purposeful” in what he said.

Reiterating that the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) subscribes to due process of law, Al-Rawi said Government maintains its respect for the Doctrine of Separation of Powers and the judicial process. He also said Government will abide by the judicial determination of the Court of Appeal in today’s hearing. Speaking later with reporters after a function in San Fernando, Al-Rawi urged the Opposition and the rest of the country to “settle down” and let due process take its course.

“The court is now with jurisdiction in these matters as to a certain aspect of clarification. Let’s let that happen and then we’d let the Ministry of Finance which has the lead on the property tax implementation to do what it has to do,” Al-Rawi said. Asked to explained the “multiple ways” which the tax could be implemented, Al-Rawi reiterated that today’s hearing should take place first.

In his signed letter to Court Registrar Jade Rodriguez, Ramlogan outlined a chronology of events from 6 pm last Friday to Saturday at 7 pm, when Rodriguez emailed a unfiled notice of appeal to him.

Ramlogan said this raised the question of how Al-Rawi and/or Imbert could announce in Parliament last Friday that the appeal was fixed for hearing on Monday. Ramlogan said at 10 am on Saturday, he phoned Rodriguez and she was unaware of a notice of appeal being filed.

He said Rodriguez confirmed that lawyers for the State tried unsuccessfully to have an emergency hearing last Friday. Ramlogan said Court of Appeal Registry managaer Ralph Daniel told him at 1 pm on Saturday that the appeal was not fixed or listed for appeal for today at 9 am. He said at 5.29 pm, Zelica Haynes Soo-Hon (an attorney from the AG’s Secretariat) sent an email with an unfiled and unsigned of a notice of appeal attached to it, to Rodriguez.

Ramlogan said at 6.20 pm, Soo- Hon sent an email to his legal team which indicated she was directed by the Rodriguez “to inform us” the appeal was fixed for today at 9 am. He added the term “fixed” means the hearing of the appeal.

At 6.55 pm, Ramlogan said Rodriguez phoned him to advise that the appeal would be heard today before Justices of Appeal Peter Jamadhar, Gregory Smith and Judith Jones.

He added that Rodriguez described this as “an appointment” with the court and provided no further information to his subsequent question as to “whether the appeal would in fact be heard at that time.” Ramlogan questioned whether what transpired was in accordance with established practice and procedure.

He claimed that based on Al-Rawi’s comment in Parliament, this decision was communicated to the State’s legal team and not to Maharaj’s. Ramlogan said Maharaj is disappointed and concerned about these events. He said Maharaj is not concerned with the State’s legal team communicating with the court in urgent cases, as lawyers are allowed to do.

Ramlogan said Maharaj is concerned that this communication did not appear to be channelled through the Registrar or the Head of the Court of Appeal Registry, leaving Maharaj’s legal team, “in the dark.” He said this process, “seeks to minimise and avoid direct contact between judges and attorneys for one party.” Ramlogan said, “The facts known to us suggests that this protocol was breached and begs the question whether there was direct contact with the learned judges.” He further alleged that no one seemed to have bothered to notify Maharaj’s legal team, “about these secret communications.” Ramlogan claimed this created an unacceptable situation where his client’s team learnt about the hearing from Al-Rawi’s comment in Parliament, at a time when the Registrar, “was privy to such knowledge.” Former minister in the ministry of finance Mariano Browne said he did not understand what Al-Rawi meant about there being other ways to roll out property tax. Browne said property tax is “not new” and has been paid in TT from 1920 to 2009.