Sabbatical leave trial now in September

NEXT Tuesday’s trial date for the hearing of the sabbatical leave issue for judges has been pushed back to September.

New directions were given by Justice James Aboud when the matter came up for hearing in the Port of Spain High Court.

The new trial dates are September 20 and 21.

In June, a last-minute substitution of defendant prevented an early collapse of the Attorney General’s interpretation summons.

The Judicial and Legal Services Commission (JLSC) had been named as the single defendant in the application, however attorneys for the AG sought to have the body substituted by the Law Association (LATT).

The AG is represented by retired judge of the Caribbean Court of Justice, Rolston Nelson,SC, Zelica Haynes-Soo Hon and Vincent Jardine. The LATT is represented by its president Douglas Mendes,SC, and Darrell Allahar and Vahini Jainarine.

Russell Martineau, SC, Amira Rahaman and Alana Bissessar represent the judges of the Supreme Court, except for Justice Aboud, who has previously said he was not a part of the internal committee of judges which considered a report of the Salaries Review Commission (SRC) for sabbatical for judges nor was he interested in taking a sabbatical.

AG Faris Al-Rawi was instructed by the Prime Minister to take relevant steps to clarify whether there exists any such leave for members of the judiciary after Chief Justice Ivor Archie had applied for sabbatical leave before changing it to vacation leave after controversy stirred over whether he in fact qualified to take sabbatical.

In November, Archie informed then President Anthony Carmona of his plan to go on a sabbatical to, “rest, reflect and study,” on a judicial fellowship in Washington, DC. He was expected to leave in February, but his plans were thwarted when the government took the position that Archie was not entitled to any sabbatical leave under terms of the SRC’s 98th Report.

Archie said that he had decided not to go on the controversial six-month sabbatical for which he had applied to former President Anthony Carmona. Instead, he said he would use his accrued vacation leave.