St.Kitts-Nevis High Court Judge declares the Motion of No Confidence is NOT Subjudice thus no impediment to bringing it for debate.

Press Release

Public Relations Office  of the
People’s Action Movement

In a seventy page judgement the High Court Judge Justice Darshan Ramdhani has made it clear that there is no impediment to bringing the Motion of No Confidence; and he urged the Speaker Hon. Curtis Martin to do the right thing so that the matter which is still before the court may become moot.

The historic Team UNITY took the judgement to the people via a Press Conference held at OTI on February 13th 2014. The opening statement was delivered by Hon. Shawn Richards and introduced the topics that were later expanded upon by Hon. Vincent Byron and Hon. Dr. Timothy Harris.

Present at the press conference were Mr. Lindsay Grant, Mr. Jonel Powell and Hon. Eugene Hamilton, all being part of the Team Unity family.

Premier Vance Amory who was on other official business joined the head table and brought his perspective to the public as he emphasized the importance of our people believing and practicing the belief in the rule of law rather than the rule of man.

Part of the 70 page judgement addressed the issue of whether the MONC Matter is subjudice and this is what the learned Justice had to say:

The originating motion will be allowed to continue against the 1st defendant in relation to all of the relief sought.

This Court was not called on in these applications to grant the substantive orders being sought on the originating motion, but has found it proper to make findings in this matter as they all relate to matters of law. Like the Chief Justice of Guyana, this Court also considers that it may be that these rulings will have effect of ‘rendering it unnecessary for the parties to proceed to a full hearing of the substantive matter.’

I have noted that the Speaker has stated that he considers that the last reason why the matter was not listed is because he considers that it is sub judice. In this context he has also referred to SO 43(1) which provides: “Reference shall not be made to any matter which is sub judice, in such a way as might in the opinion of the Chair prejudice the interests of the parties thereto. ‘The court proceedings have arisen because the claimants wish to have this Motion of No Confidence heard. This is why the matter is in court. If the matter is now placed on the Order Paper and debated, the court proceedings may become moot and merely academic.

Regardless, however, there could hardly ever be any prejudice caused to the interests of the parties in the court proceedings if the Assembly were to debate and vote on the Motion while it was still pending in court.”

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