The Bar Council of the Bar Association of Guyana welcomes the decision of the Honourable Chief Justice Roxane George in the matter of Mohabir Anil Nandlall v The Minister of Legal Affairs, Action No. 2017-HC-DEM-CIV-FDA-1874 compelling the implementation of the Judicial Review Act.
The Bar Council notes that the implementation of the Act fills a lacuna in the new Civil Procedure Rules 2016, which contains procedure contemplating remedies under the Act. In the absence of this Act, litigation in this vital area of the law has been stymied and fraught with a number of procedural hurdles some of which were laid bare in the recent CCJ’s ruling in the case of The Medical Council of Guyana v Jose OcampoTrueba, CCJ Appeal No. 2018/001, where the Honourable Court declared that prerogative remedies were no longer available in Guyana.
The Bar Council previously raised the matter of the implementation of the Act at a meeting with the Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, the Honourable Basil Williams, S.C. on July 22, 2017. The Bar Council again raised the issue with the Honourable Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs by way of letter dated November 15, 2017, requesting the urgent implementation of the Judicial Review Act.
The implementation of the Judicial Review Act is of vital importance to good public administration in a democratic society, allowing citizens ample remedies against the State and leveling the playing field. The Bar Council looks forward to the speedy implementation of the Act.