BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE Government has made clear its intention of appealing the decision of Justice John Benjamin Q.C. in making void the appointment of the Hon. Jason Hamilton as a Senator of the House and as Attorney General (AG).
The decision was made public by the Prime Minister of the Federation, the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas last evening (Feb. 28) during an address to the nation via simulcast.
Earlier yesterday, at the Basseterre High Court, His Lordship Justice John Benjamin Q.C. declared that the process by which Hamilton was appointed to the AG and Senator posts was where the breach occurred.
According to Prime Minister Douglas, the appeal of the judgment of the Court would be based on “the interpretation of Section 26 (2) of the Constitution which does not speak to a procedure, and given that there has been another interpretation of the Section in the past when there were the appointments of His Excellency Delano Bart, QC and Dr. Dennis Merchant as Senators and Attorneys-General”.
His proposition is that the decision of the Court brings to light specific procedures which were not carried out in the past and which did not draw the legal attention that the present scenario has drawn.
“On the present Court ruling, it is now being suggested that when Delano Bart resigned as Senator and Attorney-General in 2006, in order to have appointed Dr. Dennis Merchant as a Senator and Attorney-General, another Senator/Minister would have had to resign at the same time in order to make the appointment. This was not done and no one, either inside or outside of government, ever even hinted that such a manoeuver was either required or necessary.”
Following the Court’s ruling – however – Hamilton has since been reappointed as a Senator of the National Assembly and as Attorney- General via another procedure.
The procedure saw the Hon. Nigel Carty – one of the Parliament’s three Senators – submitting his resignation from the Parliament which made way for Hamilton’s appointment as a Senator and then as the AG. Carty – the Prime Minister informed – would be subsequently reappointed.
