Ramesh: Marcia is a strong woman

Maharaj said President Anthony Carmona told Ayers-Caesar not to commit suicide after she handed in her resignation on April 27, two weeks after she was appointed a judge of the High Court.

Maharaj said Ayers-Caesar has documented all the relevant facts surrounding her ‘forced’ resignation.

She is claiming that her resignation was not voluntary and to remove her from office was unconstitutional and illegal.

He continued, “I don’t know if anybody who is voluntarily resigning that you would warn them not to commit suicide.” The major defence of the State and the JLSC is that the resignation was voluntary, he said, “I do not know on what basis they have said that. It is important that the public would get both sides of this case and would make its judgement call.” “Could you imagine someone who was chief magistrate, a judge, who left one morning to go to work, and to go home that afternoon without a job?” He also revealed Ayers-Caesar worked in his chambers prior to becoming a magistrate.

Asked about her current emotional state, he said, “I knew her as a young lawyer, as a magistrate.

I must say in recent times I did not know she was such a strong woman.” Maharaj was confident of a victory in the courts but was prepared to take the case to the London Privy Council.

“We will get a declaration that she is still a judge. She can also get damages for what she has suffered.” “This is a case the judges in the Privy Council would be very anxious to hear. It would be an important case because it involves the independence of judges, and whether a judge could be removed in these circumstances,” he said.

This case, he said, would have a good effect in terms of reforms of the JLSC. “It would cause a lot of reforms to take place. I think a lot of public good can come out of this matter.”