Maha Sabha writes Prez over CJ removal reports

THE Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS) is concerned that reported attempts by Government to remove Chief Justice Sat Sharma from office will cause violence in the society. As a result, SDMS Secretary General Sat Maharaj met with President George Maxwell Richards yesterday to deliver a letter and express the organisation’s concerns. The letter urges the President to “preserve and defend the Constitution and the law, and prevent its abuse.” Speaking with reporters outside President’s House in St Ann’s after the hour-long meeting, Maharaj said he outlined to His Excellency that the Judiciary, “the last bastion of defence, is now under attack.”

He said reports in the media were “well thought out and spun in a particular way, and may lead to violence in the long-term.” Reading from the letter, Maharaj acknowledged that the President had certain powers under Section 137 of the Constitution. He stressed, however, that “there must be an overriding discretion in the President, in the public interest, to refrain from doing anything which would have the effect of ripping apart and dividing and destroying the country.” The letter also advises President Richards that his sacred duty was not merely to the Constitution, but to the spirit of the Constitution and the future of the country.

Reminding the President that he had chastised both political parties for not bringing the races together, Maharaj said the SDMS was concerned “that this country is ‘teething’ on the brink of racial violence.” And the brewing controversy may be “the spark that ignites the flame.” The letter went on to tell the President that only in exceptional circumstances should a Chief Justice be removed. It recalled that it was a PNM administration which had placed Speaker of the House of Representatives Occah Seapaul under house arrest, and the same administration which has recently suffered defeats in court matters.

“We are concerned that history is repeating itself with the Executive seeking to control the Judiciary by removing the Chief Justice. “One of your most defining moments of your presidency and in one of our nation’s most defining and fragile moments, you will preserve and defend the Constitution and the law and prevent its abuse.” Maharaj said he would also seek a meeting with Prime Minister Patrick Manning if the SDMS instructs him too. He said reports in the media “sucked us (SDMS) into it and before somebody else comes up with talks of violence, we want to say, listen let us settle this thing amicably and peacefully.” Maharaj said while the President cannot give them an undertaking to do certain things, if he has to make a decision, “he will know how this section of the community thinks.”