CJ did not sit on Kokaram's interview

CHIEF JUSTICE Ivor Archie did not participate in the interview process for Justice Vasheist Kokaram, who was elevated on Tuesday to the Court of Appeal.

In response to questions from Newsday, the Judicial and Legal Service Commission (JLSC) gave details of when the five newly promoted judges were interviewed.

In particular, the JLSC said, “The Chief Justice did not participate in the interview process” for Kokaram.

It went on to add the Chief Justice did not participate in the interview process for the other judges.

He was interviewed on October 15, 2019.

According to the information provided, Justices Maria Wilson and Mira Dean-Armorer were interviewed on October 22, 2019.

Wilson received her instrument of appointment on Tuesday, along with Kokaram and Justice Malcolm Holdip. They were the last three of five to receive their instruments this week because they had trials to complete.

Dean-Armorer and Justice Gillian Lucky received their instruments of appointment in January. Lucky and Holdip were interviewed on October 26, 2019, according to the JLSC.

The JLSC’s statement also dismissed suggestions of a “rift” being behind Archie's handing over the instruments of appointment to Holdip, Kokaram and Wilson at the Hall of Justice, Port of Spain, rather than the President at President’s House, as had been done with Dean-Armorer and Lucky.

“It was the practical course,” was the JLSC’s response to Newsday’s questions.

Holdip’s elevation was the source of some contention in the sentencing of Jamaican-born QC Vincent Nelson on Monday. Holdip was asked to step down after it was revealed that he was expected to go up to the appellate court. If he had been elevated before sentencing Nelson, then the matter would have had to go to a new judge.

He sentenced Nelson on Monday and received his instrument of appointment on Tuesday.

In Kokaram’s case, questions were raised after he delivered his ruling in the Law Association’s challenge of the prime minister’s refusal to impeach Archie in February.

On February 19, Kokaram ruled against the Law Association in its legal challenge of the prime minister’s refusal to invoke Section 137 proceedings to have the CJ impeached. He ordered the prime minister to reconsider his position on a complaint that Archie sought public housing “for needy and deserving” people.

Last week, Dr Rowley did so and wrote to the association’s president, telling him he had done as the judge directed and reconsidered the issue “with an open mind,” but “decided not to make a representation to the President,” for the same reason he gave in July.

On the weekend, the association’s council told its membership it will not appeal Kokaram’s decision, based on advice it received from its legal team and Senior Counsel Christopher Hamel-Smith.

In January, at Dean-Armorer and Lucky’s appointment ceremony, Archie disclosed that while only two judges were being sworn in then, all five to fill vacancies at the Court of Appeal had already been selected.

Judges were invited to apply for the position of appellate court judge and puisne judge by April 5, 2019.

Archie said there were several phases in the process applicants were required to go through before being interviewed by the JLSC. He also said the applicants were required to complete a psychometric assessment, and that eight of the original 20 applicants met all the criteria for appointment and five were selected for the Court of Appeal.

“After reviewing all elements of the process, the Judicial and Legal Services Commission felt confident that it had the best candidates in order to advise her Excellency on the filling of the appointments,” Archie said.

In 2018, Parliament approved a package of legislation under the Miscellaneous Provisions (Supreme Court of Judicature and Children) Act, 2018, which increased the number of High Court judges from 49 to 64 and the number of Court of Appeal judges from 12 to 15.

With the appointment of the five, the Court of Appeal has its full complement of judges.