A member of the legal (sic) community is disturbed that some politicians are indicating that they may want to meddle with court affairs. He believes it should be the Supreme Court’s decision only.
With the recent assignment of the old coroner’s court cases between all 13 of the magistrates, the president of the Bar Association, Wayne Munroe, is reinforcing that neither parliamentary or judiciary officials should interfere with the other’s interest.
“It is irresponsible for anyone to suggest that the Supreme Court will be interfered with when any party wins the elections [as] that would be a breach of the principle of the separation of powers,” said Mr. Munroe. “It is really sickening to hear politicians talk about micro-managing the courts.”
He explained that the separation of powers meant that Parliament had its place in making the laws and executives were supposed to carry out the business of the government, and the court’s duty is to uphold and apply the laws made by Parliament. He added that supervising judiciary matters was the reason why the Supreme Court’s Chief Justice was appointed and not the government or a political party.
“The politician’s position is to stay out of court and to stay in their own arena as the courts stays out of theirs,” said Mr. Munroe. “One of the most fundamental roles [of the courts] is to protect the rights of citizens. We look at laws and say, “this is what Parliament decided” and whether we like it or not, we enforce it.”
“So long as it is constitutional, reasonable and abides by national discretion the courts would not interfere because that is not their decision to make.”
Concerning the matter of the change in the Coroner’s Court cases, Mr. Munroe said that he does not understand why the situation is being termed as the “dismantling of the Coroner’s Court” in the media. He said that this change was just a part of policy that was being executed in the public interest as well as the Magistrates’ interest.
“Imagine if [a] magistrate did nothing but handle inquests and then they tried to apply to the Supreme Court,” said Mr. Munroe. “The people would say they were not qualified and it would not be in the interest of the Magistrate to become stagnant by doing the same thing over and over again.”
Mr. Munroe explained that Chief Justice Sir Burton Hall sent his position out to the bar on this matter as he had in the past with all the other matters and nobody seemed to be interested in the proceedings before now. “No one noticed when a certain magistrate on Nassau Street was assigned drug matters, nobody cared because I guess there was not anyone famous involved back then.”
In a press release from the Attorney General’s (AG’s) office, the Minister of Legal Affairs and AG, Allyson Maynard Gibson, supported the decision taken by the Chief Justice and anticipates that this reinstatement will expedite the inquest process for those Bahamian families awaiting their day in court. The release further reported that: “This decision taken by the independent judiciary is grounded in law and reinstates the procedure followed by coroner’s courts to the practice which existed prior to 1993. Under the previous procedure, each magistrate can act as a coroner, in accordance with the provisions of the Coroner’s Act. Further, all Magistrates’ Courts are available for coroners inquests per the assignment of cases by the Chief Magistrate.”
By: INDERIA SAUNDERS, The Nassau Guardian
