Today we witnessed the Constitutional
Appointment Authority (CAA) being hit hard by the Constitutional Court for
stepping outside its constitutional mandate to extend
the contract period of a judicial appointee for a further period exceeding the
period stipulated for the first term of office in the original contract of
employment.
The
ruling came in the constitutional case brought by businessman Viral Dhanjee who
has challenged the re-appointment of Justice Gupt Domah to a second term of office as a justice of the Court of
Appeal.
In their judgment the panel of judges
comprising of Judges Durai Karunakaran (presiding), Bernardin Renaud and Gustave
Dodin, ruled that the appointment of Justice Domah was unconstitutional and
ultra vires and therefore, null and void and void ab initio, that is from his
swearing-in on 5th September 2011.
The court made a series of
proposals which they hope the CAA will take into consideration in its future
deliberation and which LSH will publish in details in its Friday 20th
January edition.