Royston King’s lawyer challenges legality of Commission of Inquiry

Last Updated on Monday, 29 October 2018, 12:57 by Denis Chabrol

Town Clerk, Royston King’s Attorney-at-Law, Maxwell Edwards has challenged the legality of the Commission of Inquiry into the administration of Georgetown.

Whether the Chairman of the Commission of Inquiry, Retired Chancellor of the Judiciary Cecil Kennard will rule in favour of King will depend on counter arguments from the Commission’s lawyers, Everton Singh-Lammy and Sherwin Benjamin.

Edwards told Kennard that if he is overruled, the Town Clerk would take the witness stand “under protest”.

The hearing resumes at 2:30 PM.

Edwards, who is a former Magistrate, contended in his “preliminary point”  that the Commission is “void and a nullity” because the Local Government Commisssion Act does not allow for an investigation to be delegated to a Commission of Inquiry but to a local authority. In this case, Edwards said, the Commission of Inquiry is not a local authority.

King’s lawyer further argued that the Municipal and District Council Act provides for Local Government Minister, Ronald Bulkan to cause an investigation to be conducted, but in this instance it was not the Minister who did so.

He added, also, that the President of Guyana, David Granger did not order the Inquiry.

The lawyer also contended that the details of the warrant were not in conformity with the rules of specificity as the details were not included in the Official Gazette.