Meerabux v Attorney General of Belize

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved
JudgeLord Hope of Craighead
Judgment Date23 March 2005
Neutral Citation[2005] UKPC 12
CourtPrivy Council
Docket NumberAppeal No. 9 of 2003
Date23 March 2005
George Meerabux
Appellant
and
The Attorney General of Belize
Respondent

[2005] UKPC 12

Present at the hearing:-

Lord Hoffmann

Lord Slynn of Hadley

Lord Hope of Craighead

Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe

Lord Carswell

Appeal No. 9 of 2003

Privy Council

[Delivered by Lord Hope of Craighead]

1

The appellant is a former justice of the Supreme Court of Belize. On 18 September 2001 following complaints of misbehaviour filed by the Bar Association of Belize and by an attorney at law, Mrs Lois Young Barrow, SC, he was removed from office by the Governor-General on the advice of the Belize Advisory Council ("the BAC"). On 29 October 2001 he filed a notice of motion under section 20 of the Belize Constitution in which he claimed that his rights under sections 3(a), 6(1) and 6(8) of the Constitution had been infringed and asked the court to make declarations to that effect and to award him damages. On 27 February 2002 Blackman J refused the reliefs sought and declared that the appellant stood removed from office. On 26 June 2002, for reasons which were given on 17 October 2002, the Court of Appeal of Belize (Rowe P, Mottley and Carey JJA) dismissed his appeal against the decision of Blackman J. The appellant has now appealed, with the leave of the Court of Appeal, to their Lordships' Board.

2

The appellant's case is that the decision of the BAC that he misbehaved while performing his duties as a judge and its advice to the Governor-General that he should be removed from office were fundamentally flawed for two reasons. The first is that Mr Ellis Arnold, who presided over the proceedings in his capacity as the Chairman of the BAC, was also a member of the Bar Association of Belize by which the majority of the complaints of misbehaviour had been made. It is said that he was automatically disqualified from taking any part in these proceedings by reason of his membership of the Bar Association, or alternatively that a fair-minded and informed observer would have concluded that there was a real possibility that he was biased. The second is that the hearing into the allegations of misbehaviour took place in private. It is said that that this was a breach of the appellant's right under section 6(8) of the Constitution, as it required that the proceedings for the determination of the question whether he should be removed from his office as a justice of the Supreme Court should be heard in public.

The proceedings before the BAC

3

The complaints of misbehaviour by the Bar Association were made in a letter to the Governor-General dated 30 January 2001. The opening paragraphs of the letter, which was signed by the President, Vice-President and Secretary of the Bar Association and by two members of the Bar Committee, were as follows:

"I write as President of the Bar Association of Belize along with the Bar Committee of the Association seeking to move your Excellency to invoke the powers conferred by section 98(4) of the Belize Constitution upon the Governor General, in respect of Mr Justice Meerabux, a Justice of the Supreme Court of Belize.

As your Excellency may be aware, the Bar Association of Belize did on the 25th day of February 1999 pass a resolution against the continued tenure of Mr Justice Meerabux as a judge of the Supreme Court of Belize. The resolution was as follows:

'Be it resolved that the Bar Association of Belize respectfully requests the Government to invite the Honourable Mr Justice Meerabux to resign his office as a Judge of the Supreme Court.'

In addition to this resolution the Bar Committee of the Association has received a number of affidavits from persons containing assertions which now form the basis of the complaint of the Bar Association of Belize against Mr Justice George Meerabux."

After giving details of these affidavits, and noting that the Bar Committee had also been informed of complaints that had been lodged with the Governor-General by Mrs Lois Young Barrow, SC, on 16 and 30 October 2000, the letter concluded as follows:

"Relying upon the assertions contained in the affidavits delivered to the Bar Committee, the Bar Association of Belize hereby charges Mr Justice George Meerabux with misbehaviour in the office of a judge of the Supreme Court in that he has behaved in a manner which in the public and common perception shows that:

  • (a) he used his office corruptly for private gain and allowed his integrity to be called into question.

  • (b) he has demeaned his office and engaged in a conduct that is immoral and reprehensible so as to render him unfit to hold the office of a judge of the Supreme Court of Belize.

The Bar Association of Belize hereby invites your Excellency to consider the matters alleged in the accompanying affidavits and pray [sic] your Excellency to proceed upon the complaint as provided for in section 98(4) of the Belize Constitution."

4

The Governor-General offered the appellant an opportunity to give him reasons why he ought not to refer the complaints which he had received to the BAC. After considering the appellant's representations, he concluded that the question whether the appellant should be removed from office for misbehaviour ought to be investigated. On 29 March 2001 he referred the matter to the BAC pursuant to section 98(4) of the Constitution. The appellant was suspended from office on the same date.

5

Following the receipt of the letter from the Governor-General, the secretary of the BAC wrote to the appellant on 4 May 2001 informing him that in accordance with section 98(5) of the Constitution the BAC would convene as a tribunal on 14 May 2001 to inquire into the complaints against him. He was also notified in the same letter of the rules that the BAC was to adopt at the hearing. Among other things he was told that the Chairman of the BAC was to preside and that the proceedings were to be held in camera. He was also told that the complainants were to have the right to retain the services of counsel to conduct the proceedings, that he was to have the right to retain counsel to represent him, that the proceedings and notes of evidence were to be recorded verbatim, that the witnesses were to give evidence in chief and to be cross-examined and re-examined as counsel saw fit and that after the testimonies of the witnesses for the complainants the appellant was to be allowed to testify before the tribunal and thereafter call witnesses on his behalf as he saw fit.

6

On the opening day of the hearing on 14 May 2001 Mrs Lois Young Barrow, SC, and the Bar Association of Belize appeared and were represented by counsel. The appellant too was present with his attorneys. The tribunal announced that it would hear and deal with the complaints by Mrs Barrow and by the Bar Association separately. Objection was taken on the appellant's behalf at the outset to the decision of the tribunal that it should sit in camera. The tribunal delivered the following ruling orally in response to this objection:

"The Council have listened to the submissions and the Council have decided that for these proceedings the provision of section 6(8) [of the Constitution] does not apply. The relevant provision is that of section 54(13) and we have decided to regulate our own procedure. We have decided to proceed in camera and that is the Council's decision."

The tribunal confirmed this decision in an undated written ruling in which it again stated that it had power to hold the proceedings in camera in accordance with the provisions of section 54(13) of the Constitution. Mr Arnold explained in an affidavit dated 12 December 2001 in the proceedings before Blackman J that when it was making its ruling the tribunal had regard to section 6(9)(a) of the Constitution which, as he put it,

"[empowers] the tribunal as an administrative authority to direct the proceedings to be held in camera in circumstances where, among other things, publicity would prejudice the interests of justice or in order to protect the private lives of persons concerned in the proceedings."

7

The tribunal then proceeded to hear the complaint by Mrs Lois Young Barrow. No objection was taken to the membership of the tribunal at that stage. But at the outset of its hearing of the complaint by the Bar Association objection was taken on the appellant's behalf to the presence on the tribunal of its Chairman, Mr Arnold, and one of its members, Mr Philip Zuniga, because both were members of the Bar Association. On 4 June 2001 the tribunal delivered its ruling on this objection in these terms:

"The issue is whether the Chairman of this tribunal, and Mr Philip Zuniga, one of the members of the tribunal, should recuse themselves on the basis that they are both members of the Bar Association of Belize, the complainant.

This tribunal has considered the various submissions made, perused all the authorities cited, and concluded that the principles of natural justice must be adhered to in its investigations. Accordingly, in an effort to ensure that justice is not only but also manifestly appears to be done, the Tribunal has decided ex abundante cautela, that Mr Zuniga should recuse himself.

In respect to the Chairman, the Tribunal has concluded that based on the provisions of section 54(11) of the Constitution and the proviso thereto, it is mandatory for the Chairman to preside over these proceedings.

This Tribunal sits and functions because the Governor General has referred to it for investigation the question of removing Mr Justice George Meerabux a Justice of the Supreme Court from office for misbehaviour. There is no other Tribunal competent to carry out the said investigation. The Chairman must remain ex necessitate since, if he were to recuse himself he would thereby abdicate from his duty under the Constitution, and this Tribunal could not proceed leading to a failure of justice."

8

Mr Arnold subsequently confirmed in an...

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