Appointment for Judicial Service Commission month end – Pres. Granger
DPI, Guyana, Friday, January 11, 2019
President David Granger said on Thursday that the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) could be up and running by the end of this month.
Speaking to Journalists on the sidelines of the Guyana Police Force’s (GPF) annual officers’ conference at State House, President Granger said he has already consulted with Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams SC., on the matter. Appointments, he said, will be made at the end of January.
The life of the previous JSC came to an end in 2017. Members of that commission included Chief Justice Justice Roxanne George-Wiltshire, President of the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU), Patrick Yarde, Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards Justice Prem Persaud and Justice Lennox Perry.
Guyana’s constitution provides for the establishment of a JSC, which holds the authority to make appointments and to remove and exercise disciplinary control over persons holding or acting in such offices.
Previously, President Granger said of the JSC:
“The ‘Commission’ is the guardian of judicial autonomy. It is the defender of its independence. It is the protector of its integrity and impartiality… The JSC upholds the independence of the judiciary. It ensures by its diligence that judicial appointees possess the attributes and embody the personal values, which make them capable and willing to resist being influenced by improper partisan and personal interests.”
He said the JSC is intended to insulate judicial appointments from political partisanship and personal and other biases while ensuring that its recommendations for the appointment of judicial officers flow from a dispassionate and objective process.
“The JSC is the custodian of the values and standards of ethical and legal probity by judges and judicial officials. The JSC must zealously ensure that the personal conduct of judges does not bring the judicature into disrepute. It must preserve and protect the system’s integrity,” the President said.
Alexis Rodney.
Images Keno George.