Judge wants court for public law

PUBLIC law cases are flooding the High Court case list and the time has come for the establishment of a separate court to adjudicate on such matters. Making the call for a dedicated Public Law Court was High Court Judge Peter Jamadar, who commented that having such a court was long overdue. The judge noted that society was not becoming more litigation conscious, but more enlightened of their rights, privileges and entitlements in a modern society. The judge was at the time adjudicating in the San Fernando First Civil Court on a date of hearing for the case file by suspended National Lotteries Control Board deputy director Carmel Smith, when he said: “The way things are going, there will be more demands on the system which is already breaking under its weight.”

Jamadar was referring to the number of constitutional motions and judicial review lawsuits being filed in the High Court. Such motions, called public law actions, involved the actions of the State, its arms or public authorities in relation to the citizen. With the High Court giving priority to public law actions, other types of private law cases between citizens in land disputes, vehicular accidents, negligence and commercial law, are being sidelined on the court’s list. The judge, pressed to list the Smith case early at the expense of those cases on his list, said, “Ordinary clients are suffering because of the mushrooming of litigation in public law.”

Smith, who was charged with a disciplinary offence by the Statutory Authorities Commission 17 months after being suspended by the NLCB, is seeking to have the court declare the Commission’s long delay in laying the charge, unreasonable. Dr Fenton Ramsahoye, instructed by attorney Anand Ramlogan, told Justice Jamadar that in England, no less that three judges are assigned to adjudicate on public law cases. Adding that some 60 such cases are completed every month, Ramsahoye said he was supportive of this country having a dedicated court for public law matters.