High Court ruling on validity of NRF Act set for March 17, 2023

Today marked the final day of trials for the case challenging the legality of the Natural Resources Fund (NRF) Act in the High Court before Justice Navindra Singh.

The ruling is set for March 17, 2023.

Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, SC, said an application was made by the parties to put submissions in writing before the court. Moreover, by February 10, these submissions should be lodged, and the parties should respond to each other by February 20, 2023.

He expressed that the rule of law will prevail and that the opposition’s efforts to garner vindication for their unlawful acts cannot be supported by law.

“I have every confidence that justice will prevail and that the rule of law will win another battle because this case should never have been filed in the first place. The law will never countenance a party taking advantage of its own wrongdoing. The law is not structured that way.”

The Parliamentary Mace case stems from the opposition’s challenge to the Natural Resources Fund (NRF) Act on the grounds that there was no consultation for the formulation of the Act and that the parliamentary mace must be in place for any law to be validly passed in the National Assembly.

To this end, the Attorney General reiterated that the opposition had forfeited its right to consultations on the act with its unlawful conduct.

“The world saw their conduct, the world saw that they broke the mace, the world saw, or heard that they disrupted the microphone system, and by their conduct, they disqualified themselves from speaking. And, lo and behold they are moving the court now to essentially take advantage of their own wrongdoing, of their own misbehavior, of their own misconduct.”