Resh­ma Ra­goonath

Af­ter a three-year hia­tus, act­ing Se­nior Mag­is­trate Ram­raj Har­riper­sad has re­turned to the helm of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Mag­is­trates' As­so­ci­a­tion.

He was elect­ed pres­i­dent of the as­so­ci­a­tion on Wednes­day, de­feat­ing Se­nior Mag­is­trate Lu­ci­na Car­de­nas-Ra­goo­nanan, who was elect­ed vice-pres­i­dent. Dur­ing an in­ter­view yes­ter­day, Har­riper­sad said he was con­cerned about the con­di­tions at sev­er­al courts through­out the coun­try. "Im­prove­ments are need­ed at the San Fer­nan­do, Siparia and Ari­ma courts," he said.

"It is not a mat­ter of more mag­is­trates...it is a mat­ter of ac­com­mo­da­tion for staff, mag­is­trates, lit­i­gants and pris­on­ers." He said he was "de­light­ed" to re­turn as pres­i­dent of the as­so­ci­a­tion and vowed to work hard to en­sure mag­is­trates' na­tion­wide are treat­ed just­ly. "I am look­ing for­ward, not on­ly for bet­ter terms, con­di­tions and perks, (but) for el­e­va­tion with­in the ju­di­cial ranks," he said.

Har­riper­sad, who is based at the Tu­na­puna Mag­is­trates' Court, said he would make the as­so­ci­a­tion a "more pos­i­tive force." He added the as­so­ci­a­tion would look at "net­work­ing with our Com­mon­wealth col­leagues mag­is­trates and judges." Har­riper­sad said his de­ci­sion to ac­cept the post was a call of du­ty. "It is a mat­ter of serv­ing my coun­try by ex­ten­sion and the mag­is­tra­cy be­cause if we are dis­sat­is­fied with the con­di­tions then all the cit­i­zens and by ex­ten­sion the en­tire coun­try will suf­fer in the move to ac­cess jus­tice," Har­riper­sad.

?Oth­er mag­is­trates elect­ed as ex­ec­u­tive

of­fi­cers in Wednes­day's elec­tion were:

Sec­re­tary: Lisa Ram­sumir-Hinds

As­sis­tant sec­re­tary: Mar­cia Ay­ers-Cae­sar

Trea­sur­er: Hal­cy­on Yorke-Young

Mem­bers: Ava­son Quin­lan and Adri­an Dar­manie.