Following discussions held Friday, 5 October 2018 between Prime Minister, Dr Keith Mitchell, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Labour, Honourable Peter David, the Registrar of the Supreme Court and a delegation from the Grenada Bar Association, some progress has been made to facilitate sittings of the High Court in Grenada.
Prime Minister Mitchell has readily agreed to the use of a section of the Parliament building at Mt Wheldale as a Civil High Court. The former parliamentary office at Botanical Gardens is also to be made available for the use of the courts. The Grenada Bar Association welcomed these provisional measures.
Since May 2018 the LIME building housing the court complex, for both criminal and civil high courts, has been shut due to environmental concerns. Efforts to re-house the courts were not concluded in time for the start of the law term on 15 September 2018. This has meant a shut-down of both Criminal and Civil courts for several months, a severe hindrance to the administration of justice and the entire judicial system.
The Grenada Bar Association has been advocating for the government to procure a facility to accommodate all High Courts as a medium-term measure, ahead of the construction of the long-promised permanent Hall of Justice. The Bar Association has been co-operating with a ministerial committee to identify temporary accommodations to house at least one Civil and Criminal Court. Negotiations are ongoing for the procurement of a building to house all the courts. It is anticipated, based on commitments given at Friday’s meeting that this will be in place by the end of December 2018.
At the request of Registrar Alana Twum-Barimah, the Prime Minister also stated government’s commitment to work towards having a permanent Master of the High Court sitting in Grenada, a first for the country. This development is expected to significantly reduce the current backlog of civil cases and is also welcomed by the Grenada Bar Association.
The Grenada Bar Association is also keen to see urgent attention given to the completion of work on the Number One High Court at St John’s Street. In addition, the Bar calls for the timely completion of the work at the Corporate Affairs and Intellectual Property Office at Mt Wheldale, so that it may re-open fully to the public.
Grenada Bar Association
