Chit-Chat with Justice Minister Yatin Varma

Written by Editor Friday, 05 November 2010 16:40

News Articles - Current Affairs

We met the Hon. Yatin Varma at the Strand Palace Hotel while he was on mission in the UK in October. As a law student in London in the 1990s Yatin Varma used to contribute articles to Mauritius News on various past eminent Mauritian political figures.

Back home after his studies, he practised as a barrister, and joined the Mauritius Labour Party. He was elected to the National Assembly as a member for Mahebourg in 2005. Following the May election this year, he was made Attorney General in the Alliance Government.

 

Mr Yatin Varma, Mauritius Attorney-General (Minister of Justice), was in London to attend the the 11th Meeting of Law Ministers and Attorneys General of Small Commonwealth Jurisdictions. The meeting was organised by the Commonwealth Secretariat and took place at Marlborough House on October 18-20.

 

 

As stated on Page One, we met Mr Varma at the hotel where he was staying to reminisce about his student days in the UK (He studied in London and Cardiff) and about the time that he used to send articles to Mauritius News.

 

We asked Mr Yatin Varma, how he would feel if overseas Mauritians should ask for the right to vote at elections in Mauritius.

 

He felt that such a possibility could be considered when the question of revision of the Constitution is looked into by the Committee set up by the government to consider aspects of the Constitution that need to be revised

 

The Minister informed us that “the Government is proposing to set up a committee to have a look at the Constitution. After so many years since independence (1968) we want to look at aspects of the Constitution that need to be amended. We have mentioned it in our government programme. If it is in the government programme it indicates the government’s commitment to work in that direction. All the details have to be worked out.”

 

From our talks with the Minister we understand the Government will rely on the findings of the this committee to decide on such issues as the Best Loser system, etc

 

The Attorney-General said that much had been done since he took office in May last, a lot more remained to be done. “One of the first thing that I did when I took office was to undertake the task of translating the Code Napoleon into English. I had a meeting with the Law Reform Committee of Mauritius and we decided to review and translate the Code des Procedures Civiles and the Codes de Commerce because, as you know, we want to create a suitable environment for investors to come to Mauritius and many of them may be more at ease with English. It will ease the task of law practitioners as well. Now they have to cope with the relevant legislation in French that may be also translated into other languages.”

 

As for action in the pipeline, Mr Varma told us “There are fundamental changes that I intend to bring to the legal profession, and the legal studies. We are pondering on provisions for the training of judges and magistrates that will be brought together with the reforms in the legal profession.

 

As regards reforms in the Judiciary, We have to set up a Court of Appeal. Judges of the Supreme Court hear cases on their merit. Whenever there is an appeal against any judgement, this appeal is heard by other judges. We do not have a separate court of appeal. So judges of the Supreme Court sit in appeal. This has to be remedied. We have already prepared the legislation to that effect. I went to Cabinet with the proposed pieces of legislation to set up a Court of Appeal. We are in the process of public consultation as regards the setting up this Court (completed Oct 29)–– this will bring about fundamental changes in the judiciary. We shall finalise the Bill that will be introduced in the National Assembly.

We are introducing, shortly, divorce by mutual consent, which has not been the case so far. The Bill has gone to Cabinet and we have to go for approval of Parliament. These are ongoing reforms being brought to the judiciary.

MN: Will not the Court of Appeal be in contradiction with the Mauritian’s Right of Appeal to the Privy Council? we asked of the Minister.

YV: No. No, this will be retained. We’ll have a High Court and the Court of Appeal, both will be part of the Supreme Court, and then there will be the Right of Appeal to the Privy Council. We have prepared legislation which has been consulted by the public and other stakeholders.

 

Mr Varma told us of his official visit to London “Commonwealth Law Ministers and Attorney-Generals meet every three years, and prior to this big meeting they have a meeting of smaller Commonwealth jurisdictions. Even small countries have problems that are similar and it was thought that we should meet prior to the big meeting.

Very interesting topics were discussed: the role of the Attorney General, Media Laws, Human Rights, Sentencing, Report from Commonwealth Law Association, Commonwealth Association for Judges and Magistrates, Commonwealth Association for Law Review.

MN: How will all that affect Mauritius?

YV: We had discussions about the judiciary as well. Obviously, experience we gather from here we need, as far as possible, to implement at home. All will be very important to Mauritius, will benefit Mauritius. We always have to learn from the experience of other countries. We can state that we are a young country, we have to learn from the experience of others, we need the cooperation and support of developed nations to implement measures in our country––relevant to other commonwealth countries. We have to adapt it to local context. We have to learn from the experience of others.

Peter Chellen