In­dar­jit Seu­raj

For­mer prime min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning's re­fer­ral to the Priv­i­leges Com­mit­tee at Par­lia­ment is now be­ing chal­lenged at the High Court.The San Fer­nan­do East Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment on Thurs­day filed an ap­pli­ca­tion for leave for ju­di­cial re­view of the com­mit­tee's de­ci­sion to refuse him prop­er rep­re­sen­ta­tion at a dis­ci­pli­nary hear­ing.But be­fore he can be grant­ed leave to chal­lenge the de­ci­sion, his team of lawyers must first con­vince Jus­tice Char­maine Pem­ber­ton that she had the "ju­ris­dic­tion" to re­view the de­ci­sion.

Man­ning was re­ferred to the Priv­i­leges Com­mit­tee on No­vem­ber 26, 2010, for his re­marks in the Low­er House on No­vem­ber 19, about the cost and fund­ing of a new house of Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar.Dur­ing a de­bate on No­vem­ber 19, on the In­ter­cep­tion of Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Bill 2010, Man­ning showed a pho­to­graph of Per­sad-Bisses­sar's house be­ing built at the SS Erin Road, Phillip­ine, and al­leged it cost $150 mil­lion.

In an ex­pe­dit­ed hear­ing at the Port-of-Spain High Court yes­ter­day, Man­ning ap­peared to­geth­er with his at­tor­neys John Je­re­mie, Ker­win Gar­cia and Stu­art Young.Deb­o­rah Peake, SC, and Rik­ki Har­nanan ap­peared for the com­mit­tee and chair­man Wade Mark.Man­ning is seek­ing to have de­clared as "un­law­ful, null, void and of no ef­fect," the de­ci­sion by the com­mit­tee con­tained in a let­ter dat­ed Feb­ru­ary 10, 2011.He is claim­ing the de­ci­sion to refuse him prop­er rep­re­sen­ta­tion con­tra­venes his right to a fair hear­ing.

He had writ­ten to the com­mit­tee ask­ing that his le­gal ad­vis­er al­so be al­lowed to ask ques­tions on his be­half.But the re­quest was shut down by the com­mit­tee.The com­mit­tee mem­bers al­so in­clude Dr Roodal Mooni­lal, Dr Tim Gopeesingh, Prakash Ra­mad­har, Rodger Samuel and Chan­dresh Shar­ma, and Op­po­si­tion mem­bers Don­na Cox, Colm Im­bert and Pa­tri­cia McIn­tosh.Pem­ber­ton di­rect­ed that at­tor­neys for both sides file and ex­change writ­ten sub­mis­sions by Tues­day.She is ex­pect­ed to rule on the pre­lim­i­nary is­sue on Feb­ru­ary 24.