NASSAU, BAHAMAS — The Bahamas Judicial and Legal Service Commission (JLSC) yesterday announced its intention to advertise for the positions of registrar of the Supreme Court and coroner, as it defended criticisms of 10 recent judicial appointments.
“In view of the recent appointments to the Supreme Court, the office of registrar of the Supreme Court and the office of coroner will be vacant,” the JLSC noted in a statement.
“Public notices will be issued through the media inviting interested qualified persons to apply for each of these posts. No decisions on appointments to these posts have been made or will be made prior to the consideration of all applications for each of these posts received by the commission within the time periods specified in the respective public notices.”
Juanita Denise Lewis Johnson, Jeanine Weech-Gomez, Andrew D Forbes, Neil Brathwaite and Camille Darville-Gomez were recently appointed Supreme Court justices; while Algernon Allen Jr, Kendra Kelly, Shaka Serville, Ian Marie Darville Miller and Simone Brown were appointed stipendiary and circuit magistrates.
The appointments garnered speculation — particularly of political bias — among some members of society over why certain appointments were made over others deemed to be more fitting.
The JLSC made note of such feedback in its statement yesterday but insisted integrity in the selection process.
“Given the essential role of an independent Judiciary in our constitutional framework, it is important that the public discourse on the appointment of judicial officers take place on the basis of accurate information,” it said.
As it highlighted that it is an independent constitution commission and the government is not involved in judicial appointments, it added: “In considering the appointment process for judicial officers, members of the commission decided that, in line with the practice in most other jurisdictions around the region and elsewhere, vacancies for substantive judicial appointments under article 94(2) of the Constitution and section 13 of the Magistrates Act would be advertised through the media in order to create a level playing field for all persons who are interested in applying for such positions.
“It was determined that this would be a more transparent process than privately inviting specific persons to apply for vacant positions in the judiciary and is also in conformity with international best practices and in adherence with the Commonwealth (Latimer House) Principles relating to substantive judicial appointments by an independent commission.”
Separate notices were published advertising for the positions of Supreme Court justice and stipendiary and circuit magistrate, the JLSC declared, and “under this procedure, no individual person was in a preferred position for appointment…as all applicants were required to apply in the same way in response to the public notices”.
THE JLSC outlined that it received a number of applications and carefully reviewed and considered all fully completed and signed applications that were received within the respective time periods, before ultimately making its decision to advise the governor general to make the appointments.
“Convention and propriety preclude the public disclosure of the detailed deliberations of the commission; however, it can be stated that each member exercised his/her independent judgment when discharging his/her duties throughout the appointment process,” the commission said.
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