Privy Council rules Marcia Ayers-Caesar was unlawfully removed from office

The Ju­di­cial Com­mit­tee of the Privy Coun­cil has ruled in favour of for­mer High Court judge Mar­cia Ay­ers-Cae­sar, dis­miss­ing an ap­peal brought by Trinidad and To­ba­go’s Ju­di­cial and Le­gal Ser­vice Com­mis­sion (JLSC) and up­hold­ing find­ings that her re­moval from of­fice in April 2017 was un­law­ful.

In a unan­i­mous de­ci­sion de­liv­ered on March 24, 2025, the Board found that Ay­ers-Cae­sar’s res­ig­na­tion from the High Court was the re­sult of co­er­cion and that the JLSC’s ac­tions vi­o­lat­ed her con­sti­tu­tion­al rights.

“The Com­mis­sion brought about the claimant’s res­ig­na­tion,” the judg­ment stat­ed, not­ing that the JLSC had ef­fec­tive­ly pres­sured her to step down un­der threat of dis­ci­pli­nary pro­ceed­ings. “Pres­suris­ing a judge to re­sign by hold­ing out the threat of dis­ci­pli­nary pro­ceed­ings, as the Com­mis­sion did in the present case, cir­cum­vents the con­sti­tu­tion­al safe­guards laid down in sec­tion 137 and un­der­mines their pur­pose.”