MAGISTRATES NOW CONSTITUTIONAL POST HOLDERS

Magistrates are now Constitutional Posts. Photo credit: SIBC.

Magistrates are now constitutional post holders, following the passage of the ‘Constitution (Status of Magistrates) (Amendment) Bill’.

The Act amended Section 116, subsection 3 of the Constitution by replacing Paragraph ‘a’ with a new one.

The new paragraph now includes a mention of ‘any Magistrate of the Magistrates Court’ as a constitutional post holder.

In his wind-up of the Bill’s debates, Prime Minister Gordon Darcy Lilo says this is a matter that had been delayed for some time.

“This is the time and I think it is all the right time for this parliament to make that happen. And as we will note in this Bill that it requires an amendment to Section 1-1-6-3 to the Constitution to enable the inclusion of the status of Magistrates to be included as Constitutional offices.”

The ‘Constitution (Status of Magistrates) (Amendment) Bill’ was passed yesterday morning.