SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley yes­ter­day in­sist­ed that he act­ed prop­er­ly, legal­ly and rea­son­ably in the mat­ter in­volv­ing the Law As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T (LATT)’s move to have Chief Jus­tice Ivor Archie im­peached, stat­ing there is noth­ing more for him to an­swer and would stay clear of any “kangkatang.”

The PM was re­spond­ing to High Court Judge Vasheist Kokaram who on Wednes­day in a rul­ing, or­dered Row­ley to re­con­sid­er his de­ci­sion to re­ject LATT’s call to im­peach Archie.

Kokaram made the or­der as he par­tial­ly up­held the LATT’s le­gal chal­lenge against Row­ley’s de­ci­sion.

He al­so ruled that Row­ley made an er­ror by con­clud­ing that the as­so­ci­a­tion’s in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to mis­con­duct al­le­ga­tions lev­elled against Archie was in­flu­enced by the Op­po­si­tion.

Pressed on the is­sue at yes­ter­day’s post-Cab­i­net me­dia brief­ing at the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre, St Ann’s, Row­ley said this mat­ter was not be­tween him and any­one.

“This whole kangkatang is a mat­ter be­tween the Law As­so­ci­a­tion and the Chief Jus­tice. All the con­cerns... and the al­le­ga­tions... and the ac­cu­sa­tions and the what­ev­er is the Law As­so­ci­a­tion and the Chief Jus­tice.”

He said we should not lose sight of this.

Row­ley said the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter on­ly be­came in­volved in the mat­ter “be­cause in the kangkatang I was in­vit­ed in first as a wit­ness which I de­clined and then I was in­vit­ed sec­ond­ly when all else failed to in­voke Sec­tion 137 which un­der the Con­sti­tu­tion hap­pens to lie at the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter.”

Row­ley said he went as far as pro­vid­ing LATT with le­gal ad­vice he ob­tained from a Lon­don’s Queen’s Coun­sel “in­de­pen­dent of my own of­fice...in­de­pen­dent of this coun­try.”

The PM said some peo­ple felt “I had not done what they want­ed done and pro­ceed­ed to the court.”

Row­ley said he was “not sur­prised” and was “quite pleased” that the judg­ment of the court had been pub­lished “so the pop­u­la­tion knows that a judge has looked at what the Prime Min­is­ter did and came to the con­clu­sion that the Prime Min­is­ter of T&T who was in­vit­ed in­to this kangkatang has not act­ed un­rea­son­ably... has not act­ed il­le­gal­ly....has not act­ed im­prop­er­ly. And that is all I am con­cerned about.”

Row­ley said the pop­u­la­tion can sleep well know­ing that Kokaram has con­clud­ed that “there is noth­ing there for me to an­swer.”

In sub­mit­ting an af­fi­davit to the court, Row­ley said he did not sub­mit any­thing with re­spect to his po­lit­i­cal du­ty.

“In the judg­ment, there is the in­tan­gi­ble of a re­quest to con­sid­er. I re­spect the courts of T&T and if there is a re­quest for re­con­sid­er­a­tion noth­ing could be eas­i­er and cheap­er.”

Quizzed about Kokaram’s rul­ing that he made an er­ror by con­clud­ing that the as­so­ci­a­tion’s in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to mis­con­duct al­le­ga­tions lev­elled against Archie was in­flu­enced by the Op­po­si­tion, Row­ley said he ex­plained to the me­dia in great de­tail how he pro­ceed to make the de­ci­sion that was chal­lenged.

“And that de­ci­sion was found not to be un­rea­son­able, il­le­gal or im­prop­er. And I rest my case right there. I am not go­ing to en­ter in­to any fur­ther dis­cus­sion on the mat­ter.”

He said if there are any le­gal in­ter­pre­ta­tions to be had, as he has done be­fore on oth­er mat­ters “I do not ad­vise my­self in mat­ters of law. And I will be ad­vised by my le­gal as­sis­tant.”

Row­ley said for him there are oc­ca­sions where si­lence is gold­en “and this is one oc­ca­sion.”

Pressed if he in­tend­ed to re­con­sid­er his de­ci­sion as or­dered by Kokaram, would seek le­gal ad­vice and what was his next course of ac­tion, Row­ley shot back say­ing “I have said all that I want to say on this mat­ter. If there are any le­gal re­quire­ments I will be ad­vised by my le­gal as­sis­tant.” (See page 6)