THERE’S TOO MUCH political interference with the selection of judges in Barbados, says the new president of the Barbados Bar Association, Andrew Pilgrim. And according to him, the practice is dangerous and should be stopped.
“What you need is to distance the appointment as much as possible from the political directorate.
“You really need a body that is chaired by a person who does not rely on the PM [Prime Minister] or the AG [Attorney General] to appoint them, and appointees who hold their power regardless of the change of Government . . . .
“You would want that decision seem to be transparent and distant from the Cabinet or the Prime Minister,” Pilgrim told the SUNDAY SUN.
His comments came against the background of reports which indicated Government would be going to Parliament soon to amend the Supreme Court of Judicature Act to facilitate the appointment of designate Marston Gibson as the island’s next Chief Justice.
But Pilgrim said Government would be wrong to amend the law in order to appoint Gibson.
“I would like the right to say that the Bees [Barbados Labour Party] should not have appointed David Simmons [retired Chief Justice] the way they did, and I said that to them.
“And by the same token now speaking for myself, while I have issues with the limitations of the law as it relates to the Chief Justice, it looks funny when you do something like what we are doing now,” he said.
Pilgrim said any appointment which dealt with the judgement of the public was a massive responsibility.
“If you sit in that position and you feel in any way obliged to somebody for giving you that pick, let me put it in basic language, there is real danger.”
Pilgrim said the society should not be surrendered to the politicians.
“We must feel that when you go in front of a court, if your head got on locks [dreadlocks], or if you are a bald head, if your are a Bee or a Dee or a Cee, that you are going to get a fair shake and that you don’t have to wonder if this judge was carrying cards for somebody,” he argued.
