Senior Reporter
anna-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt
Attorneys representing the chairman of the Equal Opportunity Tribunal (EOT) Donna Prowell-Raphael yesterday appealed a ruling by Justice Avason Quinlan-Williams that the EOT head acted illegally to prevent lay assessor Veera Bhajan from taking up duty in March 2021 on the grounds of bias.
Appearing before Justices of Appeal Mira Dean-Armorer, Vasheist Kokaram and Malcolm Holdip at a virtual hearing, Prowell-Rapahel’s lead attorney, Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, SC, argued that Quinlan-Williams erred in law and asked for the matter be assigned to another judge.
However, Bhajan’s attorney Alvin Fitzpatrick, SC, and Rishi Dass, SC, who appeared for the Attorney General, called for the appeal to be dismissed.
Lawrence Maharaj described the matter as one of the worst cases of apparent bias he had witnessed throughout his career as an attorney. He said the claims leveled against Prowell-Raphael during the hearing before Quinlan-Williams had not been issues raised before the court and the judge had been biased to allow the intemperate language which gave rise to the claim of bias.
Attorneys for Bhajan and the AG denied this, arguing instead that Quinlan-Williams had been justified in her findings and there had been sufficient evidence to allow for a case of malice and bad faith. As such, the judge had been correct in making certain statements, they said.
A status hearing has been scheduled for November 29.
Five months after she was appointed as a lay-assessor of the EOT by President Paula-Mae Weekes, Bhajan, an attorney who is differently-abled, threatened to sue after allegedly being blocked from taking up the position.
Bhajan, who was born without arms, was awarded the Hummingbird Medal (Silver) in 2011.
Prowell-Raphael had previously filed two appeals over Quinlan-Williams’ handling of the lawsuit brought by Bhajan.
