CJ: We can’t wait for Vision 2020

CHIEF JUSTICE Sat Sharma said yesterday that the time for talk was over and it was time for action to deal with the dilapidated condition of courthouses in Trinidad. Sharma said, “We need to have an acceptable standard of justice, proper buildings and proper facilities, as well as proper conditions. We do not have to wait until Vision 2020. Hopefully, we will achieve improved court buildings before that.” The Chief Justice spoke with the media following a meeting with a representative team from San Fernando following the action by attorneys to protest the conditions at the San Fernando Magistrates’ Court last week. Hendrickson Seunath SC, president of the Southern Assembly of Lawyers, headed the team which included Subhas Panday and Chaitram Sinanan.

Also present were Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls, Gilbert Peterson SC, Chairman of the Legal Aid Authority, and the Court Executive Administrator Master Christie-Ann Morris-Alleyne. Sharma added, “What we have raised here is nothing new. We have been talking about this for the last number of years.  There is a time we must put a stop to it. Before people start to take the law into their own hands and refuse to go to court, let us deal with this problem.” He continued, “We never had a full complement of functioning courts in this country. We have been trying to see what we can do. A great deal of the problem has been the bureaucracy. We had retained two buildings, but the reason why we have not occupied them is because the architect is not available. This is a very lame excuse. But the way things work in the civil service, this is how it has to be.” Sharma pointed out that close to $1 million has been paid out in rent for two buildings in San Fernando over the past year, yet the Judiciary has not been able to occupy it because the architect is unavailable. “It is time we get our own architect,” the Chief Justice added. He added, “We should fast track things where court buildings are concerned. They are in a deplorable condition, sub-human and primitive, and clearly are not functioning. We have isolated four courts which we feel should receive urgent and immediate attention — Chaguanas, San Fernando, Siparia, and Rio Claro.”

CJ Sharma felt there should be a consolidated attack to get these courts functioning “and if there is speed, we will have no difficulty.”
The Chief Justice asked the San Fernando delegation to inform the judiciary as to what is required to make the San Fernando Court more comfortable on the short-term basis. He also expressed concern at the overcrowding at the San Fernando Court. He noted that the prisoners’ cells are too small and prisoners have to be brought from the nearby police station with the magistrates being able to deal only with the lists and adjourn cases. But in an effort to get things going, CJ Sharma warned that sacrifices have to be made. “You cannot expect to have comfort all the way through,  we have to make sacrifices. This has been going on for the last 50 years and nobody has been taking us on, but the time has come when we will be able to say, ‘but look here, it has to be given priority.’ It has to be given priority in a way that it is effective and to bring collective relief to the various courts I have spoken about.”

CJ Sharma said the judiciary has used the funds made available to the maximum. “We have not been sitting down and folding our arms. We have been aware of the problems. But I am quite optimistic and I think the practitioners have been reasonable.” On another note, the Chief Justice revealed that the new Arima Magistrate’s Court will become functional within a month. He said the old court was in a terrible condition where prisoners used to throw filth at the magistrates. Subhas Panday felt that the judiciary had been disrespected by other arms of Government. “Bureaucracy should not prevent us from occupying a building for more than one year. So much money has been spent for nothing. The judiciary is too important not to be taken seriously,” Panday added.