Chief Jus­tice Ron­nie Boodoos­ingh says re­ceiv­ing the Or­der of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go (ORTT) is both an ho­n­our and a re­minder of the ju­di­cia­ry’s du­ty to serve the peo­ple.

In a state­ment is­sued hours be­fore he re­ceived the award yes­ter­day, Boodoos­ingh said he ac­cept­ed the award with “im­mense grat­i­tude” and a deep sense of the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty it car­ries.

“As a cit­i­zen and as the present cus­to­di­an of the Of­fice of Chief Jus­tice, I ac­cept the award of the Or­der of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go with im­mense grat­i­tude and a deep ap­pre­ci­a­tion of the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty that comes with it,” he said.

Boodoos­ingh not­ed that chief jus­tices have tra­di­tion­al­ly been among the re­cip­i­ents of the coun­try’s high­est na­tion­al ho­n­our. He said this re­flects not on­ly a chief jus­tice’s role with­in the na­tion­al awards sys­tem but al­so the Ju­di­cia­ry’s con­sti­tu­tion­al re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to up­hold democ­ra­cy and the rule of law.

“The award is a re­minder that our role is fun­da­men­tal­ly one of ser­vice,” Boodoos­ingh said.

The Chief Jus­tice al­so reaf­firmed his com­mit­ment to im­prov­ing the de­liv­ery of jus­tice, cred­it­ing the sup­port of var­i­ous peo­ple and cowork­ers.

“With the sup­port of my fam­i­ly, my col­leagues and the staff of the Ju­di­cia­ry, I re­main com­mit­ted to the con­tin­u­ous im­prove­ment of the de­liv­ery of jus­tice to our cit­i­zens,” he said.

Boodoos­ingh thanked those who sent mes­sages of con­grat­u­la­tions and good­will fol­low­ing the an­nounce­ment of the award.

The ORTT is T&T’s high­est na­tion­al ho­n­our and is con­ferred for dis­tin­guished and out­stand­ing ser­vice to the na­tion.

Boodoos­ingh be­came Chief Jus­tice in 2023, suc­ceed­ing Ivor Archie, who served in the post for 17 years.

His state­ment came as T&T cel­e­brat­ed its 50th Re­pub­lic Day, mark­ing the na­tion’s tran­si­tion from a con­sti­tu­tion­al monar­chy to a re­pub­lic on Sep­tem­ber 24, 1976.