BY FRANCIS JOSEPH
It is an achievement for someone to reach the age of 60. But it is a much better achievement when you reach 60 years in a profession.
That person was celebrated on Friday by the Assembly of Southern Lawyers, led by its president, Saira Lakhan.
The person being celebrated was none other than Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj SC, who has another four months before he makes it to 60 years as a lawyer. About 500 lawyers, judges and other guests, gathered and paid tribute to Maharaj at the C3 Mall, San Fernando.
Among those present included Chief Justice Ronnie Boodoosingh, Justices Frank Seepersad, Carol Gobin, Gillian Lucky, Peter Jamadar and retired judges Anthony Lucky and Joseph Tam.
There were those who passed through Maharaj’s Chambers over the years, such as Anand Ramlogan SC, Darrell Allahar, now a Government Minister, Prakash Ramadhar, Roger Gaspard SC, now DPP, and Ronnie Bissessar.
Among those paying tribute were the Chief Justice, Lynette Seebaran-Suite SC, President of the Law Association, and Israel Khan SC, President of the Criminal Bar Association.
When it was his turn at the crease, Maharaj made it quite clear that retirement was not on his agenda. “I intend to bat like Brian Lara and break all records.”
Maharaj paid tribute to his late wife, Lynette, whom he said played a vital role in his success.
It would not be Ramesh Maharaj if he did not talk about the time he was jailed for contempt of court by Justice Sonny Maharaj in 1975. He was before the San Fernando High Court. He had no regrets over what he had said that caused him to be sent to the prison in Port-of-Spain.
He said he never apologized and he won his case at the Privy Council where he was awarded damages.
His last case at the Privy Council was on July 14 when he appeared for Assistant Commissioner of Police, Earl Elie, Dominic Pitilal, and Ashmeed Mohammed, who were detained and released without charge during the 2011 State of Emergency. That judgment is pending.
During his speech on Friday, Maharaj said any State of Emergency law that allows a government minister to decide whether someone remains in detention amounts to giving judicial powers to the executive, which he believes is contrary to Trinidad and Tobago’s Constitution.
Maharaj said the regulations used during the 2011 SoE, were the same in 2026 which undermine the separation of powers.
Referring to the constitutional challenge now before the Privy Council in the Dominic and Genevieve Hadeed case, Maharaj said the issue goes beyond the detention of individuals and strikes at the heart of the Constitution.
He said, “As a matter of fact, the present case that is being done involving Dominic Hadeed, if it were not for that section in the Judicial Review Act, there would have had to be leave to appeal.”
In his case before the Privy Council, Maharaj said, “I argued that the regulations were unconstitutional. And I argued the case that even if the regulations were lawful, the exercise of discretion was unlawful.
“A SoE is an exceptional situation and if you have the police service functioning, the courts functioning, all the public institutions functioning, you cannot use a SoE to fight crime because when you create a SoE, you suspend the enjoyment of fundamental rights guaranteed in Section 4 and 5 of the Constitution.”
