Appeal Court Judge Charmaine Pemberton was on Thursday sworn in as a member of the Judicial and Legal Service Commission (JLSC) for the second time in less than two years.
While Pemberton was appointed to the body in September 2017, her appointment came under question in February after it was revealed that it was done under the wrong section of the Constitution.
In a press release issued yesterday, President Paula Mae-Weekes admitted that she began an “unusually” robust consultation process to correct the error after it was pointed out by former government minister Devant Maharaj shortly after his legal victory over the composition of the body in the Privy Council.
In its judgement, in February, the Privy Council ruled that section 110(3)(a) of the Constitution only provided for the appointment of one sitting or retired judge to the five-member commission and that judges can not fill two places on the JLSC reserved for persons with legal training. Pemberton was mistakenly appointed under section 110(3)(b) of the Constitution as one of two persons with legal training by Weekes’ predecessor president Anthony Carmona.
While she said that Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley had no objections to Pemberton’s reappointment, Weekes revealed that Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar raised the issue of whether she had complaints against her before the JLSC.
Although she noted that the JLSC stated that there were no outstanding complaints or investigations against her, Weekes did reveal that in 2006 an attorney made a complaint against her but she was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing.
Weekes also sought to repeatedly defend her decision to reappoint Pemberton as she noted that she (Pemberton) was not responsible for the error and that there was no indication that she was unfit to hold office.
The current members of the JLSC are Chief Justice Ivor Archie (chairman), head of the Public Service Commission (PSC) Maureen Manchouck, Pemberton and attorney Ernest Koylass, SC.