Jesse Ramdeo 

Se­nior Re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

Sev­en new judges have been ap­point­ed to the High Court, fol­low­ing a swear­ing-in cer­e­mo­ny at Pres­i­dent’s House yes­ter­day.

Pres­i­dent Chris­tine  Kan­ga­loo ad­min­is­tered the Oath of Of­fice to the sev­en Puisne Judges dur­ing a cer­e­mo­ny, which was al­so at­tend­ed by Chief Jus­tice Ron­nie Boodoos­ingh.

The new­ly ap­point­ed judges are Jus­tices Re­han­na Ho­sein, Ha­sine Shaikh, Sab­ri­na Dougdeen-Jaglal, Sher­lanne Pierre, Wendy Ali, Ni­rad Sam­nad­da-Ram­rek­ers­ingh and Adia Mo­hammed.

The ap­point­ments bring to­geth­er a wide cross-sec­tion of le­gal ex­pe­ri­ence, span­ning the ju­di­cia­ry, pri­vate prac­tice, pub­lic ser­vice and acad­e­mia.

Jus­tice Re­han­na Ho­sein pre­vi­ous­ly served as a Mas­ter of the High Court and has held roles in­clud­ing Se­nior Mag­is­trate and Se­nior State So­lic­i­tor.

She has al­so been in­volved in sev­er­al ju­di­cial com­mit­tees, in­clud­ing those fo­cused on do­mes­tic vi­o­lence and small claims re­form.

Jus­tice Ha­sine Shaikh, Se­nior Coun­sel, comes to the bench from her role as Chief Pub­lic De­fend­er, the first per­son to hold that of­fice in T&T.

She has al­so served as a le­gal ad­vi­sor with­in the Min­istry of Trans­port and as a tu­tor in crim­i­nal law at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies.

Jus­tice Sab­ri­na Dougdeen-Jaglal, for­mer­ly Deputy Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions, brings ex­ten­sive pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al ex­pe­ri­ence, hav­ing risen through the ranks of the DPP’s of­fice since 2005.

Jus­tice Sher­lanne Pierre, al­so a for­mer Mas­ter of the High Court, has worked across civ­il and fam­i­ly law and has held ad­min­is­tra­tive roles with­in the ju­di­cia­ry, in­clud­ing ad­min­is­tra­tive sec­re­tary to the Chief Jus­tice.

Jus­tice Wendy Ali joins the bench af­ter serv­ing as a mem­ber of the In­dus­tri­al Court. Her ca­reer in­cludes lead­er­ship roles in State agen­cies and acad­e­mia, in­clud­ing as chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer of the North West Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty.

Jus­tice Ni­rad Sam­nad­da-Ram­rek­ers­ingh tran­si­tions from pri­vate prac­tice, where he was a part­ner at a lo­cal law firm and ad­vised on ma­jor na­tion­al in­fra­struc­ture projects. He has al­so served in pub­lic sec­tor le­gal roles and on na­tion­al boards.

Jus­tice Adia Mo­hammed, a Mas­ter of the High Court in the Crim­i­nal Di­vi­sion, has a back­ground in both pros­e­cu­tion and the mag­is­tra­cy, and pre­vi­ous­ly served as pres­i­dent of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Mag­is­trates’ As­so­ci­a­tion.

Ac­cord­ing to the Of­fice of the Pres­i­dent, the ap­point­ments re­flect a blend of le­gal ex­per­tise and pub­lic ser­vice ex­pe­ri­ence aimed at strength­en­ing the ju­di­cia­ry.