CCJ upholds Justice Navindra Singh’s Order on DCB election

The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) has dismissed an application filed by Anand Sanasie & Anand Kalladeen challenging Justice Navindra Singh’s decision to order an election for the Demerara Cricket Board (DCB).
The challenge was filed in February 2021, and the case was dismissed on February 24th, 2023, a release from the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) has revealed. The applicants were also ordered to pay costs to the respondents.
The CCJ has held that the applicants failed to establish that their challenge to Justice Singh’s Order had any likelihood or chance of success.
The applicants Sanasie and Kalladeen were represented by Attorneys CV Satram and Ron Motilall, while the respondents: Roger Harper, Davteerth Anandjit and Bradley Fredericks, were represented by Attorney Arudranauth Gossai.
The holding of the DCB Election in February, 2021 paved the way for the Honourable Minister of Sport, Charles Ramson Jr., to appoint a Cricket Ombudsman and to have the long-awaited and much-delayed lawful election of the Guyana Cricket Board, which was subsequently held in March, 2021.
The decision of the CCJ brought an end to almost twelve (12) years of litigation in which Sanasie and Kalladeen sought, in every conceivable way, to prevent a lawful election of the DCB.
Justice Singh had ruled since June 2019 that an election must be held for the DCB in August, 2019 but same could not be held because an appeal was filed against Justice Singh’s Order, a stay of that Order was granted by the Court of Appeal, and the Guyana Cricket Administration Act was suspended by an Order of a single judge of the Court of Appeal. That suspension of the Cricket Act was eventually lifted by the full bench of the Court of Appeal in September 2020, and Sanasie and Kalladeen withdrew their application to stay Justice Singh’s Order.
The way was then clear for a DCB election to be held.
Sanasaie and Kalladeen, however, did not stop their quest to stymie the holding of a lawful election, and they appealed Justice Singh’s Order to the Full Court, which dismissed their appeal with costs. They then appealed to the Court of Appeal, and again their appeal was dismissed. Their final attempt to derail the lawful election of the DCB was brought to finality by the Judgment of the CCJ, which was delivered by the Honourable President of the CCJ, Justice Adrian Saunders.