Parliamentarians debated a compendium of bills in the House Of Assembly on Wednesday aimed at judiciary reform.
Minister of the Housing and Urban Renewal, the Hon. Keith Bell led debate on the bills. He said, “this is why today, Madam Speaker, for the first time in our history a Bahamian government is moving to essential sever executive control over court facilities and management. This is indeed revolutionary, Madam Speaker, and progressive. The Court Services Bill 2023 is a bill of constitutional significance. It will create a new court services council which will be responsible for providing administration and court services for the courts thereby freeing the courts from any interference or the appearance of any interference from the executive arm of government.”
Bell further explained the ramifications of the court dependence on central government. “First it makes the court dependent or appear to be dependent on the executive and the legislature. Secondly, our court officials who are best placed to make decisions on the administration of the courts must rely on some other government department to carry out even the most basic of functions.”
