Legal fraternity raises concerns over delay in appointing appeal judges

The de­lay in ap­point­ing five new Court of Ap­peal judges is rais­ing con­cerns in the le­gal fra­ter­ni­ty as three sit­ting ap­pel­late judges pre­pare to demit of­fice, cre­at­ing un­cer­tain­ty over the arrange­ments for No­vem­ber.

A se­nior ju­di­cial of­fi­cer told Guardian Me­dia that the Ju­di­cial and Le­gal Ser­vice Com­mis­sion (JLSC) sub­mit­ted its rec­om­men­da­tions for the five ap­point­ments to Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo last Wednes­day.

How­ev­er, as of yes­ter­day, the in­stru­ments of ap­point­ment had still not been is­sued by Pres­i­dent’s House. Jus­tice of Ap­peal Prakash Moo­sai has re­tired fol­low­ing al­most three decades on the Bench, while the tem­po­rary ap­pel­late ap­point­ments of Jus­tices Car­ol Gob­in and Joan Charles are al­so com­ing to an end, with both judges ex­pect­ed to re­turn to the High Court.