00:00Chief Justice Rony Budusing explains why he said exercising the powers of judicial office is not about being popular but
00:07is about independence and intellectual honesty during his first law term opening address last month.
00:13For a democratic society to work it depends on there being an independent judiciary who is willing to stand up
00:24for the rights of citizens but balancing rights with responsibilities and I would remind I would talk about judicial independence
00:36and not being popular probably in every law term address.
00:43Because I think it is so important to reinforce those principles.
00:48During a media conference at the judicial complex at the waterfront in Port of Spain just over a month after
00:54the 2026-2027 law term opening at the Hall of Justice, Chief Justice Budusing referred to what he identified as
01:01the judiciary's principles.
01:03It is good to reinforce principles from time to time. Judges are not hired to be popular.
01:12If we are hired to be popular then we will be making decisions.
01:17We will be, well what would the public think about this?
01:20What would the public think about that?
01:23And judges have to apply law and we have to apply the law to facts and evidence and it comes
01:33on the basis of the evidence that we have.
01:35The Chief Justice said some people often render their views about court judgements without having even read those judgements.
01:43We have seen criticism of judicial officers in Trinidad and Tobiu and across the region, across the world and I
01:53think it is important sometimes to just remind people that our job is to give decisions based on what is
02:02before us and based on what we see the law to be.
02:06We have a system where our decisions can be tested ultimately to a higher court.
02:14Speaking about his first year in office, the Chief Justice spoke about the issue of the backlog of cases in
02:19the judiciary and efforts to address that.
02:22What worries me the most, I think, is a long time for cases to be disposed of.
02:31I think that is an issue that we have to work about, work at in each division.
02:37No victim of a crime, no accused of a crime should have to wait 10 and 15, 20 years for
02:44a case to be determined.
02:45We have to work at those things.
02:48No child should have to wait years for an issue of custody or maintenance to be dealt with.
02:56The Chief Justice said the judiciary is aiming at a six-month time frame in general for the delivery of
03:02judgements.
03:03June Brown, TV6 News.
