Busy 7 months for Privy Council

In the past, the Privy Council has sat during the court vacation to deal with urgent cases, such as dealing with attempts by Governments to hang convicted killers. This time, they will be asked to sit in the case of a Chief Justice who is trying to stop the authorities from prosecuting him.

Whoever loses today’s appeal before the local Court of Appeal will certainly be heading to London for an urgent hearing.

Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Carla Brown-Antoine, Assistant Commissioner Wellington Virgil, and Commissioner of Police Trevor Paul are appealing the decision of Madame Justice Judith Jones to grant six injunctions in July restraining them from arresting Chief Justice Sat Sharma on a charge of attempting to pervert the course of public justice.

Sharma has been accused by Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls of trying to influence his decision in the trial of former Prime Minister Basdeo Panday on charges of knowingly failing to declare his London bank account to the Integrity Commission for the years 1997, 1998, and 1999.

That decision will be handed down at 2.30 pm in the Court of Appeal which comprised Justices Margot Warner, Ivor Archie, and Paula Mae Weekes. Both sides approached the Privy Council last week and the State gave an undertaking that they would not arrest Sharma until the hearing and determination of the matter before the court.

Up to July 27, the Privy Council has handed down 42 written judgments. This is apart from the numerous petitions they have had to deal with in the past seven months. Of the written judgments, seven came from Trinidad and Tobago. The year started off in the Privy Council with its first decision from Trinidad and Tobago on January 11. It was the State’s appeal in the acquittal of Brad Boyce on a charge of murder. On September 1, 1996, there was an altercation outside the Edge Nightclub, Long Circular Mall, St James, which resulted in the death of one Jason Johnson.

Boyce was charged with murder, but eventually committed to stand trial for manslaughter. He was reindicted by the Director of Public Prosecutions for murder and went on trial before Justice Herbert Volney at the Port-of-Spain High Court.

Volney stopped the case, not at the close of the prosecution’s case, but midway during Boyce’s defence. He was also highly critical of the forensic pathologist Dr Hughvon Des Vignes. The State appealed, but the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal.

The State went to the Privy Council and succeeded, but the Law Lords ruled that it would be an abuse of process to try to prosecute Boyce after more than nine years after the incident.

The next TT judgment came on January 30 when the Privy Council dealt with the case of convicted policemen Vijay Bhola and Leon Wiggins. They had been convicted before Justice Melville Baird in 2001 with demanding money by menaces and sentenced to six years in jail. The Law Lords dismissed their appeals. When the judgment was delivered, Bhola and Wiggins had already served their sentences, so they were immediately released from custody.

On April 25, the Privy Council dismissed an appeal brought by two women against Prime Minister Patrick Manning. Florence Bobb and Girlie Moses had taken Manning to court over the 18-18 election tie in 2001. The women went to court accusing Manning of taking too long to call fresh elections which he did and which the PNM won 20-16 in the 2002 elections. By that time the women’s case came to the Privy Council, it was merely academic.

One of the biggest decisions in the Privy Council this year was the appeal brought by Central Broadcasting Services Limited and the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha against the Attorney General over the refusal of the Telecommunications Authority to grant them a broadcast licence. They claimed they were unfairly treated and preference was given to Citadel Limited, which was owned by one of the main supporters of the Government. At the time Citadel was granted a radio licence, that company was not incorporated.

The British Law Lords ruled that the State discriminated against the appellants and ordered the Attorney General to pay costs.

The final judgment from TT was delivered on July 6. In that appeal, police corporals Eusebio Cooper and Clifford Balbosa took the Police Service Commission (PSC) to court over the delay in releasing the results of the exams for promotion to the rank of sergeant.

The Privy Council also ruled that it is for the PSC to appoint the Examinations Board to deal with exams, and not the Cabinet which had been doing so for more than 40 years.