State’s appeal to be heard today

THERE was a lot of hype surrounding the State’s appeal against the injunction granted by Justice Judith Jones to Chief Justice Sat Sharma. The appeal against the grant of the injunction was listed for 1.30 pm yesterday.

But half an hour before, interested lawyers, law students and journalists, many of whom are not familiar with covering court matters, started to make their way to the Court of Appeal for the much anticipated hearing.

The Chief Justice’s team headed by Alvin Fitzpatrick SC gathered in the court library for a small meeting before the hearing.

Around 1.20 pm, most of the lawyers involved in the case had arrived and Fitzpatrick told his colleagues in the foyer that the senior lawyers were going to see the panel of judges hearing the matter.

At 1.30 pm, every seat in the court was taken up. But the senior lawyers — Fitzpatrick, Gilbert Peterson SC, Douglas Mendes SC and Ian Benjamin were still meeting in chambers with the judges.

They returned to the court at 2.05 pm with most of them sporting stern faces. Everyone’s attention was focused on the lawyers who huddled into small groups to discuss what had happened in chambers.

Five minutes later, one of the employees of the Supreme Court came into court and said the judges wanted to see the lawyers again. There were several theories circulating as to what was being discussed in chambers.

The lawyers spent just ten minutes on this occasion and returned to the courtroom.

Within minutes, the judges — Justice Margot Warner, Justice Wendell Kangaloo and Justice Ivor Archie walked in.

The junior lawyers announced the appearances for the Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Carla Brown-Antoine, Assistant Commissioner of Police Wellington Virgil, Commissioner of Police Trevor Paul and the Chief Justice.

There was complete silence afterwards. Justice Warner then broke the silence, “this appeal is adjourned to tomorrow at 9.30 am.” The judges got up and left the courtroom with Justice Archie breaking out with a smile as he departed. It took one hour for the appeal to be adjourned.

There was a buzz around the courtroom and more speculation, but the lawyers were tight-lipped as to what was discussed in chambers. One lawyer said it would be interesting to see if the same three judges will sit when the appeal resumes this morning.

The three are appealing against the decision of Justice Jones, who on July 24, granted an injunction, restraining Brown-Antoine and every member of the 7,000-strong Police Service from arresting Sharma on a warrant for attempting to pervert the course of public justice.

Between July 10 and 24, Justice Jones granted six injunctions restraining the deputy DPP and the police from arresting him.