A HEARING to determine if the Attorney General’s lawsuit relating to deputy Chief Secretary Watson Duke’s appointment while still being the head of a trade union became acrimonious when the State’s main attorney accused his opponents of launching a “deliberate ambush” while also launching a personal attack on one of them.
At a hearing of two applications to strike out AG Faris Al-Rawi’s interpretation claim on Wednesday, Senior Counsel Fyard Hosein objected to the preliminary issue being heard without directions being given by the trial judge to file skeletal submissions and instead suggested the issue be heard along with the substantive claim filed by the AG.
“This was supposed to be a CMC (case management conference) to give directions. We are caught by surprise. No skeletal arguments were filed. We should have been put on notice on what we were doing today,” he said as he asked for a two-week adjournment as he admitted he would not “be able to provide assistance” to the court if the preliminary issue “was to be tried today.”
Responding to objections to his resistance to the judge hearing the strikeout applications by Duke and the THA Chief Secretary Farley Augustine, Hosein continued, “This is a deliberate ambush.”
[caption id="attachment_939047" align="alignnone" width="916"] Anand Ramlogan, SC -[/caption]
He said it was wrong for three attorneys general to take that position, adding that he did not expect any different from Duke’s attorney, former AG Anand Ramlogan, SC, whom he said: “had a morality of his own.”
There were murmurs of remonstrance on the virtual platform before Justice Margaret Mohammed ruled that she will be hearing the preliminary strike-out objections first. A timetable was set by the judge for the filing of submissions and authorities after which she will give her decision on April 1.
It is the position of the THA, Augustine and Duke that the AG’s case should be struck out on the basis it was an abuse of process and has since become academic as Duke has resigned his positions at the Water and Sewerage Authority, as head of the Public Service Association and as a member of the Registration, Recognition and Certification Board (RRCB).
Hosein in objection to the strike-out applications being heard first said the court should avoid duplicity of the issues as they were interconnected while adding it was a better use of judicial resources to hear the matters together.
He also raised the assignment of two assistant secretaries in the assembly both being employed by WASA and the Port Authority having been denied no-pay leave from both agencies, saying the interpretation claim also concerned their positions.
Augustine’s lead attorney, former AG Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj said he was surprised by the State’s position since it was the AG who filed a certificate of urgency to have the matter, at the time, heard during what was the court’s vacation.
He said if the court found favour with the argument that the AG’s claim
