Opposition going too far with ‘vexatious’ litigations – AG Williams

DPI, Guyana, Thursday, October 24, 2019

Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Hon. Basil Williams, SC said the back and forth by the political opposition, pushing many matters in the lower courts that were already ruled out by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), is simply “vexatious” and a waste of valuable time.

The recent ruling by Chief Justice (ag), Roxane George in the High Court, on the application for the President and Cabinet to resign, was one such matter which could have been avoided, had the opposition taken heed to the ruling of the “apex court”.

The Attorney General appeared on the National Communications Network’s (NCN) radio programme ‘Insight’ this morning, where he shared developments in the legal sector.

He noted the continued attempts by the opposition to override rulings by the CCJ, through its lawyer Anil Nandlall, by returning matters to the High Court that were already dealt with at that level.

“The Chief Justice’s decision is really a reiteration of the CCJ’s decision. The opposition had embarked on the fake programme saying that the government is illegal. So, the Chief Justice’s decision confirmed the legality of the government which was expressed by the highest court of the land, the CCJ,” AG Williams stated.

He said the refusal by the opposition to accept the ruling of the CCJ resulted in them moving to the lower courts on three occasions, challenging the same decisions that were determined – and they were rebuffed on all three occasions.

“What this means, is that if you go to the court, you are expected to give your full case to the court and not just part of the case and then you come back and go back to the court. That is abuse. And so, we left that allegation against Mr. Nandlall that he was a ‘vexatious litigant’, that he was abusing the process of the court” the Attorney General stated.

Last week, Justice George threw out litigation by Nandlall, which called for the Cabinet, to resign. She said the application was ‘vexatious’ and absolute abuse of the process of the court.

In her August 14 ruling on the legality of the Guyana Elections Commission’s (GECOM) House-to-House Registration, the Chief Justice had again shut down calls by the opposition for a date be set for the holding of General and Regional Elections. During that ruling, she declared that her court, like the CCJ, would not be meddling in matters outside its jurisdiction to name a date for the elections.