Erroneous media Reporting of No Confidence Motion in the Court of Appeal.

In an attempt to correct the misinformation being peddled in various sections of the media as it relates to yesterday’s standstill of the appeal for a stay of execution in the Court of Appeal, the Attorney General’s Chambers and Ministry of Legal Affairs wishes to unequivocally state the facts.

A Notice of Appeal was initially filed on February 5, 2019 on behalf of the Appellant, the Attorney General challenging the Chief Justice’s ruling on January 31st, 2019 in both FDAs No. 22 and 29.

Consequently, the parties were invited to settle the records of appeal on February 15, 2019. During the course of settling the records of appeal some clerical errors were recognised and the judge was subsequently informed. This session was attended by the State Solicitor and lawyers representing the interest of the other parties.

Attorney at Law, Anil Nandlall who is representing, the Leader of the Opposition noticed that his client’s name was inadvertently omitted from the rubric of the initial Notice of Appeal.

At this juncture, the State Solicitor committed to amend the omission on the rubric and it was agreed by all the parties present that the Notice of Appeal would be amended, to now reflect the inclusion of the Leader of the Opposition and served on all parties. All parties noted that it was a mere inadvertent clerical error and should not adversely affect the hearing of the matter.

As was instructed, the State Solicitor amended the Notice of Appeal in accordance with Order 2 rule 6 (1) (b) and this was filed and served on Monday, February 18th, 2019 ahead of Wednesday’s hearing before Justice of Appeal, Mr. Rishi Persaud.

It is quite appalling that the media would characterise an inadvertent slip as an array of glaring errors.

Further, it is crucial that the media operatives should exercise some degree of due regard and caution when reporting matters of this magnitude.

The matters have been filed and the appellant anticipates a hearing date for the said matters in the coming week.