Derek Achong

For­mer prime min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning's High Court ac­tions against the Priv­i­leges Com­mit­tee are ex­pect­ed to be heard at the end of this month.He was sched­uled to ap­pear be­fore Jus­tice Mau­reen Ra­j­nauth-Lee yes­ter­day in the Port-of-Spain High Court but the mat­ter was resched­uled to May 31.Last month, Man­ning, through his lawyer, for­mer at­tor­ney gen­er­al John Je­re­mie, filed an ap­pli­ca­tion for leave to ap­ply for re­view at the court over re­fusal of le­gal rep­re­sen­ta­tion for a dis­ci­pli­nary hear­ing of the com­mit­tee.Al­so on May 12, an ap­pli­ca­tion was filed seek­ing to pre­vent Man­ning from ap­pear­ing be­fore the com­mit­tee, be­fore Ra­j­nauth-Lee.Man­ning was be­fore the com­mit­tee for con­tempt, re­lat­ing to state­ments made about the pri­vate res­i­dence of Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar near Bryan's Gate, Philip­pine.

On Mon­day, dur­ing the vote in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives to ac­cept the find­ings of the com­mit­tee (de­cid­ed last Fri­day), Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Mooni­lal hint­ed that Man­ning may no longer seek the court's as­sis­tance in de­cid­ing on the mat­ter.Ef­forts to con­tact Je­re­mie at his cham­bers for com­ment on Man­ning's fu­ture le­gal plans for the mat­ter at the end of the month, proved fu­tile.Man­ning's le­gal team al­so in­cludes Dou­glas Mendes, SC and at­tor­neys Ker­wyn Gar­cia, Stu­art Young and Sasha Franklin, while the com­mit­tee is due to be rep­re­sent­ed by Se­nior Coun­sel Rus­sell Mar­tineau, Dana See­ta­hal, Deb­o­rah Peake for the mat­ters be­fore the High Court.