Shas­tri Boodan

Free­lance Con­trib­u­tor

The Ch­agua­nas Bor­ough Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee (CBCC) and its chair­man, Melis­sa R. Jadoo­nanan, are prepar­ing to take le­gal ac­tion against in­di­vid­u­als and or­gan­i­sa­tions who have al­leged that she re­ceived a kick­back. The ac­cu­sa­tions sur­faced on so­cial me­dia fol­low­ing the re­lease of the 2026 J’Ou­vert re­sults.

Jadoo­nanan is­sued a for­mal state­ment yes­ter­day, em­pha­sis­ing that all judg­ing was con­duct­ed by an in­de­pen­dent pan­el.

The state­ment read in part: “In re­sponse to cer­tain false, ma­li­cious, and defam­a­to­ry state­ments pub­lished and cir­cu­lat­ed on so­cial me­dia and oth­er pub­lic plat­forms — state­ments al­leg­ing mis­con­duct, cor­rup­tion, and im­prop­er in­ter­fer­ence in Car­ni­val ad­ju­di­ca­tion process­es — these al­le­ga­tions are en­tire­ly false, whol­ly with­out foun­da­tion, and con­sti­tute se­ri­ous and ac­tion­able defama­tion at law. The al­le­ga­tions are defam­a­to­ry per se, di­rect­ly im­pugn­ing the per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al in­tegri­ty, hon­esty, and rep­u­ta­tion of Mrs Jadoo­nanan, and are cal­cu­lat­ed to bring her in­to pub­lic scan­dal, ridicule, and dis­re­pute. Fur­ther, these state­ments have un­law­ful­ly and un­jus­ti­fi­ably im­pugned the in­tegri­ty, cred­i­bil­i­ty, and in­sti­tu­tion­al le­git­i­ma­cy of the Ch­agua­nas Bor­ough Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee.”

The state­ment con­tin­ued: “At all ma­te­r­i­al times, the chair­man and the com­mit­tee have con­duct­ed their du­ties law­ful­ly, trans­par­ent­ly, and in ac­cor­dance with es­tab­lished gov­er­nance pro­ce­dures and prin­ci­ples of fair­ness, in­de­pen­dence, and ac­count­abil­i­ty. Car­ni­val ad­ju­di­ca­tion process­es are in­de­pen­dent and free from im­prop­er in­flu­ence, and any as­ser­tion to the con­trary is cat­e­gor­i­cal­ly de­nied. These pub­li­ca­tions con­sti­tute a grave and un­law­ful at­tack on the char­ac­ter, pro­fes­sion­al stand­ing, and pub­lic of­fice of Mrs Jadoo­nanan, an at­tor­ney-at-law and pub­lic of­fi­cial, caus­ing se­ri­ous rep­u­ta­tion­al harm, dis­tress, and dam­age.”

Jadoo­nanan’s state­ment con­firmed that le­gal coun­sel has been for­mal­ly in­struct­ed, with pro­ceed­ings be­fore the High Court of Jus­tice im­mi­nent. The planned le­gal ac­tion will in­clude claims for gen­er­al, ag­gra­vat­ed, and ex­em­plary dam­ages, as well as in­junc­tive re­lief and oth­er reme­dies avail­able at law.

“All in­di­vid­u­als and en­ti­ties re­spon­si­ble for pub­lish­ing, re­pub­lish­ing, shar­ing, en­dors­ing, or oth­er­wise dis­sem­i­nat­ing these defam­a­to­ry state­ments are for­mal­ly placed on no­tice to im­me­di­ate­ly cease and de­sist from any fur­ther pub­li­ca­tion or rep­e­ti­tion of these false al­le­ga­tions. Un­der es­tab­lished prin­ci­ples of defama­tion law, any­one who re­pub­lish­es or con­tin­ues to cir­cu­late defam­a­to­ry ma­te­r­i­al may be held joint­ly and sev­er­al­ly li­able for dam­ages. Fail­ure to com­ply and to is­sue a full and un­equiv­o­cal pub­lic re­trac­tion and apol­o­gy will re­sult in the im­me­di­ate in­sti­tu­tion of le­gal pro­ceed­ings with­out fur­ther no­tice,” the state­ment said.

The state­ment con­clud­ed by af­firm­ing the CBCC’s com­mit­ment to up­hold trans­paren­cy, ac­count­abil­i­ty and in­tegri­ty.

“The Ch­agua­nas Bor­ough Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee re­mains stead­fast in its du­ty to pro­tect the rep­u­ta­tion of its chair­man and the in­sti­tu­tion­al cred­i­bil­i­ty of Car­ni­val in Ch­agua­nas. Mem­bers of the pub­lic are strong­ly ad­vised to re­frain from en­gag­ing in, re­peat­ing, or dis­sem­i­nat­ing false and defam­a­to­ry con­tent.”