Former CJ slams award of silk to sitting judges

PORT-OF-SPAIN: Former Chief Justice and former president of the Caribbean Court of Justice Michael de la Bastide is criticising the award of silk to sitting members of the judicial bench- Chief Justice Ivor Archie and Justice Wendell Kangaloo.
In a strongly worded letter, the former CJ said the award of silk is for practising attorneys and not for judges.
He says the award of silk to an incumbent Chief Justice or to a sitting Court of Appeal judge is an aberration which if previously committed should not have been repeated.
"The fact", according to De la Bastide "is that elevation to the rank of senior counsel or the award of silk is an honour which can appropriately be conferred only on counsel,". This term he says means practicising barristers or practicing attorneys.
He said the fact that a judge has been a practising attorney before assuming judicial office or may after a prescribed period return to practice after he retires cannot serve to qualify him for the award of silk while he is still on the bench.
He says a fundamental in our concept of justice is that the roles of judge and counsel be seperate and distinct.
De la bastide suggests that the time may have come for Trinidad and Tobago to follow the example of the United Kingdom and remove the grant of silk from the hands of politicians and make it the responsibility of an independent panel , which would include representatives of the legal profession , as well as representatives of civil society.