The High Court has dismissed an application challenging President Dr Irfaan Ali’s appointment of seven members of the Teaching Service Commission (TSC), ruling that the appointments were lawful despite the absence of a Leader of the Opposition at the time. Justice Damone Younge handed down the decision in a judicial review matter brought by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Terrence Campbell, who had sought declarations that the President breached the Constitution by appointing members of the TSC without first consulting with a leader of the opposition. Campbell, through attorneys-at-law Khemraj Ramjattan and Christopher Ram, argued that three members of the Commission could only be appointed following meaningful consultation with the Opposition Leader under Article 207(2)(d) of the Constitution. He contended that the appointments made on December 31, 2025, were unlawful because no opposition leader was in office at the time. The Attorney General (AG) of Guyana was named as the respondent in the proceedings. In January 2026, Doodmattie Singh, Shafiran Bhajan, Joan Davis-Monkhouse, Lancelot Baptiste, Satti Jaisieriisingh, Mayda Persaud, and Saddam Hussain were sworn in as members of the new TSC for the next three years.

Meanwhile, in defending the appointments, the AG argued that the President’s constitutional power to make appointments was not extinguished by a vacancy in another constitutional office. It was further submitted that the obligation to consult is mandatory only where consultation is capable of being undertaken and that the law does not require the performance of an impossibility. The AG also contended that the President acted reasonably and in the public interest to avoid a vacuum in the Teaching Service Commission and to prevent disruption to the administration of the education sector. Additionally, it was argued that the court should decline to grant the reliefs sought, given the public interest considerations and the discretionary nature of judicial review remedies. The state’s case relied in part on previous local judicial decisions, including the 2022 ruling of then Chief Justice Roxane George SC in Aubrey Norton v Attorney General of Guyana and Clifton Hicken. In that matter, the court upheld President Ali’s appointment of Clifton Hicken to act as Commissioner of Police during a period when there was no opposition leader in office. Justice Younge adopted similar reasoning in the present case, noting that the absence of a leader of the opposition at the time of the appointments was not due to any action or omission on the part of the President.

In her ruling, the judge emphasised the importance of maintaining the continuity of essential constitutional institutions, particularly those connected to the administration of education. “The administration of education in Guyana remains a vital pillar of national life. To leave the system without a functioning commission would have exposed it to uncertainty and disruption, thereby imperilling the orderly governance of the sector.”