The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council has ordered that Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls face two disciplinary charges relating to his failure to testify against former Trinidad and Tobago Chief Justice Sat Sharma.A charge of attempting to pervert the course of public justice was dropped after Mc Nicolls refused to testify.
The British Law Lords dismissed Mc Nicolls’ judicial review case and ordered that he pay costs.
The judgment said Mc Nicolls failed to give evidence against Sharma causing the case to collapse very early into the prosecution. It said because of that the chief magistrate has a case to answer.
Mc Nicolls, who has been Chief magistrate for 10 years, is currently on extended leave. He was the State’s main witness in the case against Sharma, which arose out of a complaint made by Mc Nicolls to Prime Minister Patrick Manning.
He alleged that Sharma attempted to influence him in a decision in the criminal trial of former Prime Minister Basdeo Panday, who was charged with failing to declare to the integrity commission a bank account held in London.
When Mc Nicolls went into the witness box at the preliminary inquiry on march 5, 2007 he told the magistrate he was not prepared to give evidence in the matter.
The case collapsed and Sharma was exonerated.
In investigation by the Judicial and Legal services Commission (JLSC) led to six disciplinary charges against Mc Nicolls. But Mc Nicolls challenged that. Four of the six charges were later quashed by the high court but the matter went through appeals.
On July 25, 2009, the Court of Appeal upheld the High Court's decision and ordered that Mc Nicolls face just two charges. That led to the appeal to the Privy Council.
The Privy Council said it found nothing oppressive in the disciplinary process conducted by the JLSC, nor did the Lords consider Mc Nicolls’ defence to be prejudiced by it.
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