The Privy Council has ruled the repeal of the controversial Administration of Justice (Indictable Offences) Act was lawful.
Delivering a 19 page judgement at the United Kingdom's Supreme Court in London this morning, five law lords of the Privy Council stated that Parliament did not act illegally when it moved to repeal the legislation almost two weeks after it was proclaimed on August 31, 2012.
Their decision clears the way for a dozen people and companies accused of fraud arising out of the construction of the Piarco International Airport, who sought to use the short lived legislation to have the protracted cases automatically dismissed, to eventually go on trial.
It is consistent with consecutive rulings from High Court Judge Mira Dean-Armourer and the local Court of Appeal who had previous rejected the constitutional motion lawsuits brought by businessmen Ameer Edoo and Steve Ferguson and insurance company Martime General. The trio's lawsuits were used a test case which decides the fate of all 42 people and companies which applied under section 34 of the act before the repeal.
The clause gave people, whose trials for specific offences had not started after ten years after the crime was committed, the right to apply to have the case dismissed.
In their lawsuits the applicants claimed that Parliament infringed upon the judicial independence as by repealing the law, it removed the court's power to determine cases already filed before it. The Privy Council, in their judgement, rejected this notion as it ruled that the move by Parliament to correct its "oversight" on the effect of the clause was legal and did not infringe the applicants constitutional rights.