In a period when many are complaining that accountability at all levels in the public sector is in short supply, today I am taking off my hat to–well, really I don't have one except the one I purchased to go to a back-in-times party last year–Chief Justice Ivor Archie, for admitting that the judiciary was tardy in delivering swift justice in the nation's courts.
I also salute him for putting to rest the wild but potentially dangerous allegation that there was an orchestrated plot to run him out of office, to which the rumour mill had added that certain state functionaries were behind this diabolical adventure.In this space last week I pleaded with Justice Archie (I am not so conceited as to claim credit for the CJ's swift denial) to clear the air on the alleged plot which if it were true could spell a clear and present danger to our democratic way of life.
So I was more than pleased when, in a lengthy statement published in the Saturday Guardian last, Justice Archie put the matter firmly where it belonged in the cemetery of unadulterated mischief when he declared: "The Judiciary has promoted collaboration (among those in the justice system), with the establishment of a Justice Sector Inter-Ministerial Committee which the Honourable Chief Justice has been chairing for the past three years since its inception.
"Under this umbrella and without any compromise on its independence, the Judiciary has fostered the very best relations with the Executive and it is in this context that the Honourable Chief Justice is surprised at wide spared reports of a plot to have him demit office.
"No such assertion against the State was made in the meeting of Judges and Masters on December 9, 2103, contrary to reports appearing in the media.
http://www.guardian.co.tt/digital/new-members