Sir Ellis: Amend the Constitution

Former President Sir Ellis Clarke has called for the Constitution to be amended so that the same office-holder influences both the appointment and the removal of a Chief Justice (CJ). He was addressing a luncheon of the Rotary Club yesterday at Cascadia Hotel. At present, he said, the Republican Constitution empowers the President to appoint a Chief Justice, but lets the Prime Minister influence his removal. Sir Ellis wants the Constitution amended. He said, “Any question of the Chief Justice’s removal should not be a matter for the Prime Minister, but for the President, who selects a Tribunal, and then it goes to the Privy Council.” All that was now needed, he said, was a simple constitutional amendment to correct something which was at present incorrect.

He made it clear he was not taking sides with anyone, alluding to the current impasse between CJ Sat Sharma and Prime Minister Patrick Manning. Sir Ellis explained that the anomaly of having two different persons to appoint and remove a Chief Justice had arisen as an oversight when a new Republican Constitution was hurriedly drafted in 1976 to replace the Independence Constitution of 1962, which he had drafted. He noted that in the Republican Constitution the President appoints the CJ after a mere “consultation with the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition,” whereas in the Independent Constitution the head of State  (Governor General) had been constrained to appointing a CJ “in accordance with the advice of the Prime Minister.”

But the Republican Constitution section 137, he added, made it clear that the President, in order to investigate the question of the removal of a CJ, had to appoint a tribunal he has selected in accordance with the advice of the Prime Minister. “One would wish the power given to the Prime Minister in Section 137 resided in the President,” he remarked. He lamented that there was already enough polarisation in our community, without people now latching on to wrong things and mis-stating constitutional provisions. “I hope I have helped undo some of the harm caused by mistaken notions, and set the record straight.”

He urged, “Make the constitutional amendments and let’s diffuse all the hot air that has been written and expressed on this issue.” Sir Ellis warned listeners not to assume that the learned Chief Justice is guilty of any impropriety. “Let us wait and see the outcome.” Sir Ellis said he was stunned at the “letter of the day” published in Tuesday’s Express which had incorrectly stated that the Prime Minister has no role to play in the administration of justice, and that was the role of the President only. Sir Ellis said, “I am shocked that a newspaper publishes this as a letter of the day without a comment. An editorial note should have stated ‘Not in accordance with  the Constitution’.”