Political Scientist, Professor Hamid Ghany says while the Privy Council’s landmark ruling on the Sexual Offences Act may have settled the constitutional question, the legal process is not yet completely over.
Although the Privy Council has delivered its judgment on the Sexual Offences Act, Political Scientist, Professor Hamid Ghany says the case has not yet reached its final procedural stage.
Speaking on TTT’s Focus Programme, he explained that the court has invited additional submissions before determining precisely how the ruling should be applied.
“I think that there is provision for one more set of submissions to be made with regard to this because the Judge, at first instance, had attempted to rewrite the law, and I think that there is another set of submissions.”
However, he stressed that the central constitutional issues have already been decided by the Privy Council.
“What has been determined at this point is that the Sexual Offences Act Sections 13 and 16 do not have the protection of saved law as laws before 1976. They don’t have that protection. And therefore, those two sections are deemed not to be reasonably justifiable, having regard to the human rights section that guarantees private and family life”.
While the constitutional issues have been determined, Professor Ghany said the Privy Council has left room for additional submissions before bringing the matter to a close.
“There are further submissions to be made in this case before the final determination of the Privy Council is made. This is the judgement that has come down on this. But they have invited, because counsel for Jason Jones made certain submissions and the court is prepared to hear them. But they need to offer the state the opportunity to respond to whatever submission is made.”