Letters to the Editor

Open Letter  - Reply to CJ’s Speech

We would be grateful if you could publish this letter in reply to certain statements made by the Chief Justice in his interview to SBC TV on Monday evening.  We shall attempt to be very brief.

Listening to the Chief Justice, it appeared to us that he was playing politics to the gallery.  It should be understood that working on Saturdays or outside normal working hours will not improve the administration of justice.  It may just another day of the week that cases would be called and summons will not be served by the police or his process servers or records will not be typed and the cases will be adjourned.

Therefore, allow us space, Mr. Editor, to suggest a few more reasonable options that the Chief Justice and others concerned could consider taking to improve the administration of our justice system without any need to subject the Government to further cost by getting the Court to sit on Saturdays or outside normal working hours:-

(1) The Chief justice should start taking more cases.  Going through the list of Supreme Court cases for the past years it is clear that the Chief justice takes a lot less cases than the other Judges.  Often the cases he takes are minor matters that could be dealt with by the Master and Registrar e.g. undefended divorce petition and appointment of Executors.  In fact once when a simple application for appointment of executor came before a certain judge the judge joked that he is surprised that he has been assigned such a “serious” case.

(2)  All Judges should arrive at work at 8.00 a.m. and start sitting in Court at 9.00 a.m.  Some judges do, others do not.  A judge is like any other public officer who starts work at 8.00 a.m., leaves at 4 p.m. and takes an hour lunch break.  It is the Court which starts sitting at 9.00 a.m. whilst the Judges start working at 8.00 a.m.  Very often judges are not in their offices at 9.00 a.m. or at 1.00 p.m.  It is no excuse that they work weekends or at home otherwise teachers will say the same.

(3) The Court should equip itself with good stenographers and interpreters.  There is a need to modernise and computerise the recording of court proceedings.  There are always delays in completing the record of court proceedings and this substantially delays the delivery of judgments by Judges.  In many cases litigants wait for unduly long time for the Judge to deliver judgments after all evidence has been admitted.  Often the wait is more than 12 months in very simple and straightforward cases.

(4) The summons, notices and other process should be served in good time.

(5) The CAA should propose and the President should appoint qualified judges in accordance with the terms of the Constitution-too many cases are being returned to the Supreme Court by the Court of Appeal for re-hearing or allowed on very simple legal issues.

(6) The Chief justice should allow the Master and Registrar to take cases and if need be amend the relevant laws for this purpose.  It is over two years since the Master and Registrar has been appointed and he has not been assigned duties of a Master.  A Master presides over judicial matters and he is taken as a junior Judge.  Our Master, who has over 15 years of legal experience should, therefore, be given powers to take mentions, defended and undefended matrimonial cases, appointment of executors and guardians, civil appeals from the Magistrate’s Court and other interlocutory matters. This will relieve the Judges of such simple and often time consuming matters allowing them to get on with their hearings without undue delay.

(7) The appointment of a Registrar to oversee the administrative matters.  Mr. Colin Jean-Louis or Mr. Cesar can be recalled to perform such job.  Mr. Melchior Vidot can remain as Master and exercise the functions of a Master under the Constitution as a junior Judge.  In fact, under our laws Master and Registrar are two different offices to be performed by two different persons.

(8) Enforcement of judgments should be expedited and performed without interference.

(9) Judges should remain at work during court vacation.  It is the Court which is on vacation not the Judges.  During that period they are expected to write their judgments or, if they wish, take their annual leave,   Over the years Court vacation has been used as vacation for the judges.  According to the law during court vacation the Supreme Court should continue sitting on criminal matters and only civil matters are not heard unless of urgent nature.

(10) Relieve the Senior Magistrate of his functions as the Chairman of the Rent Board.  The Senior Magistrate already presides the Juvenile Court and spends two full afternoons every week chairing the Rent Board. Another person preferably a Seychellois can do this job allowing the Senior Magistrate to concentrate on his court cases.

(11) Set up an electronic diary system.  A lot of prime Supreme Court’s time is wasted by Court waiting for the only Supreme Court diary to be available.

(12) Create a web site for the Court and provide the cause list and all the forms for adoptions, breach of the peace and legal aid online making them more accessible to the public.

These are a few modest suggestions to improve the administration of justice in Seychelles.  There are many others.  We have abstained from accusing the lawyers in general for causing delay in the administration of justice.  Such abstention is not to say that they are not responsible for it.  Lawyers are in the hands and under the supervision of the Court and it is the Court which should deter lawyers from using any delaying tactics.

It is also refreshing to hear the Chief justice make mention that henceforth examination for the “local bar” will be corrected in Mauritius.  We think it’s a good move to give it credence.  We suggest the retention of the Council of Legal Education in Mauritius instead of the University of Mauritius to perform this task.

The Chief Justice should also seriously address issues like enrolment of lawyers and pupillage. In the past we have seen the Chief Justice appointing unqualified persons as Attorney-At-Law in flagrant contravention of the Legal Practitioner’s Act, exempting pupillage, allowing part-time pupillage and granting pupils extensive or same right of audience as fully fledged lawyers.

The abuse of the legal aid scheme also needs to be addressed.  A lot of undeserving litigants obtain legal aid at the expense of other deserving ones.

To end we would like to suggest a more fruitful exercise to improve the administration of justice in Seychelles - the holding of a proper seminar or workshop of all stakeholders on this issue.  The workshop can be given a mandate to prepare a white paper to be presented to the President of the Republic or the Chief Justice for implementation.

A few concerned lawyers

September 21, 2007
Copyright 2007: Seychelles Weekly, Victoria, Mahe, Seychelles