Citizens should exercise restraint before declaring former Chief Magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar guilty of perjury. They should wait until Thursday’s hearing at the San Fernando High Court when Ayers-Caesar’s application for judicial review against the Judicial and Legal Services Commission (JLSC) and the President will be heard, her attorney Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj SC said yesterday.
He told reporters Ayers-Caesar had documented all the relevant facts surrounding her resignation and the grounds on which they are claiming it was not voluntary. She is claiming that the action to remove her from office was illegal and unconstitutional.
“Very important in that evidence, is that while she was going to the President’s House, based on the arrangement made for her to go, having got her resignation signed to be delivered to the President, that appointment was not made by her,” he said.
“That appointment was made by the Judiciary and on her way, she sent three text messages, one to a priest, one to a magistrate and one to a top person in this country whom she has not disclosed. Those text messages are exhibited as part of the proceedings and will show there was no question of that resignation being a voluntary one.”
Maharaj said there is contemporaneous documentary evidence to support the fact that the resignation was not voluntary.
“The worst case outcome is that Ayers-Caesar would lose in the High Court and Court of Appeal but I am very confident—and based on discussions in London—this case would win with flying colours in the Privy Council,” he said.
Maharaj said Ayers-Caesar’s family has been suffering an intense public backlash as a result of the ongoing fiasco and they can no longer move around freely in public. However, he is confident her deep seated spirituality will keep her grounded and on the right course.
“A lot of public good can come out of it,” he said.