AG ordered to hasten defence of Felix, Scott seats in Parliament

Opposition Member of Parliament and former Attorney General Anil Nandlall, is wary that the substantive Legal Affairs Minister Basil Williams, will seek to delay and protract a political case being heard in the courts, namely the challenge to seats in Parliament occupied by Government technocrats Winston Felix and Keith Scott.
The seats occupied by the two Government Ministers were challenged by Desmond Morian.
The matter came up for hearing on November 4 last, at which point in time Chancellor of the Judiciary, Carl Singh ordered that “immediate steps be taken towards the settling and preparation of the record of appeal.”
The obligation to settle and prepare the record of appeal is on the Appellant, who is the Attorney General Basil Williams.

Nandlall has since signalled his wariness, saying “I am aware that his ‘modus operandi’ is to delay and protract all these political cases from being heard, I will have to be very vigilant, as usual.”
Chief Justice Ian Chang in the High Court proceedings ruled that those two MPs were unlawfully and unconstitutionally occupying seats in the National Assembly.
Commenting on the developments surrounding the Appeal, Nandlall recalled that the issue that was then engaging the attention of the Court of Appeal, was whether the interim Stay of Execution of Chief Justice Ian Chang’s Judgment, granted by the Chancellor of the Judiciary, Justice Singh, should continue until the hearing and determination of the Appeal.
According to Nandlall, “In order to expedite the hearing and determination of the Appeal, I consented to the interim Stay of Execution to continue until the hearing and determination of the Appeal.”
Nandlall has since disclosed too that he implored the Court to fix an early date for the hearing of the Appeal since it concerns a matter of national importance.
PPP member Desmond Morian had moved to the court seeking to bar the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) members from sitting in the National Assembly unless their names are extracted from their coalition’s list.

Felix, the Citizenship Minister and Scott, Minister with responsibility for labour, are sitting in the National Assembly as technocratic members of the Assembly.
Chief Justice (Ag) Chang had handed down the decision during his pre-retirement and had declared that Felix and Scott, by virtue of their status as elected members of the National Assembly, cannot sit in Parliament as Technocrat Ministers.