Even as legal challenges to the repeal of Section 34 make their way to the Privy Council—now that all appeals in local courts have been exhausted—the court system cannot yet benefit from an efficient system of pre-trial proceedings, which was the main intent of the act.
All the noise and fury over Section 34 of the Administration of Justice (Indictable Proceedings) Act has distracted from the many useful provisions of that legislation, which were aimed at improving the justice system. While all the attention and arguments have been focused on the enactment and—after a public outcry—swift repeal of that single clause, the court system remains bogged down by chronic manpower and procedural problems which would have been addressed with full implementation of the act.
How much longer will citizens have to wait for enactment of all the long-needed provisions of the Administration of Justice Act? These are issues that must be addressed by Attorney General Anand Ramlogan and Justice Minister Emmanuel George who have ministerial jurisdictions over the matter, as well as the Chief Justice, who will need to ensure the necessary infrastructure, recruitment and training are in place.
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