Georgetown:Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall, with his team of legal officials has produced several strategies geared towards revolutionising Guyana’s judicial system. One of the most groundbreaking is the New Judicial Act which makes a firm stand against corruption by enabling citizens with the tools of redress against corrupt officials.
Guyana’s judicial system has been making slow strides towards being recognised as a modern system of justice. However, the Legal Affairs Ministry has made plans to fast track this process to ensure the people get the justice they need and at the time they need it.
According to a release sent by the Legal Affairs Minister, the New Judicial Act “will provide (the) citizenry with an unprecedented repertoire of legal remedies which they can seek against officials of the State, officials of Government, and indeed every public officer or organ when there is an actual, threatened or perceived violation of the Constitution, misbehaviour, abuse of authority, or wrongful or unreasonable exercise of power.”
The Minister stated that this innovative move will pave the way for persons of the citizenry to get the justice they need in such situations. This act can prove as effective as the Home Affairs Ministry ‘I Paid A Bribe’ campaign to stamp out corruption, where persons can expect justice by seeking the available legal remedies the new act will allow to do so.
Also, in a bid to strengthen the institutional capacity of Guyana’s court system, the Legal Affairs Ministry has made plans to modernise the courts of the country. According to Minister Nandlall, in the release Guyana is well on its way to becoming on “par with other jurisdictions in the Caribbean and elsewhere.”
This, he explained, will become a reality when the new civil procedure rules are brought into force to make civil litigation up to date. Also, the Minister mentioned plans in place to add several needed resources to strengthen the institutional capacity and capability of the judicial system at every level.
He said that once his Ministry has been able to partner with the judicial system then the courts should expect “greater speed”, thus addressing the backlog of cases that has come to plague the courts.
Lawyers have spoken at length at some point or the other about the lengthy time a matter takes to come to conclusion. Attorney Ronald Burch Smith had commented at the steady note-taking that is required of the Magistrates at the Magistrate’s Courts in Guyana. He said this takes enormous time away from other things and also focus away from the case.
With the changes the Legal Affairs Ministry have in mind; Minister Nandlall stated that the “delivery of decisions” can be expected to be given in a timely manner. This he said is what a “just, democratic (society, where) the rule of law reigns supreme” means.
The release continued that speed to the judicial system will also be gained by targeting the backlog of civil and criminal cases that are pending in the system.
To facilitate this, the judiciary has committed to the commissioning of a study by experts to examine the real reasons for the sloth in the judiciary and to generate recommendations designed to rectify the identified deficiencies.
To continue on this thread, the Ministry plans to enhance the human resource base of the justice system by appointing more Judges, Magistrates and other personnel to facilitate administration and other technological needs of the courts. The release stated that the Ministry has already increased the statutory complement of Judges in the High Court from 12 to 20, laying the foundation for more appointments to be made with every convenient speed.
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