Senior Counsel Israel Khan says only the director of the Legal Aid and Advisory Authority can appoint public defenders to represent accused people whose lawyers are tardy in representing their clients.

Khan, a former director of the authority, said the Chief Justice had no legal authority to make such a decision and could not issue a practice direction to judges to appoint public defenders.

“The only person authorised under the law to appoint and thus assigned public defenders to represent an accused is the chairman/director of the Legal Aid and Advisory Authority.

“Also, every accused is entitled to the constitutional right to retain an attorney of his choice to represent him on a criminal charge and if the particular lawyer is not attending court to defend him that lawyer must be reported by the trial judge to the Disciplinary Committee (of the Law Association) to take appropriate action against the said attorney.”

On March 16, new practice directions were gazetted whichwould allow judges to appoint public defenders in an effort to discourage delays and avoid unnecessary hearings.

The directions said the rules were intended to enable the courts to deal with cases justly, efficiently and expeditiously.

It set out the process by which a judge or master in the criminal division could appoint a public defender when the non-attendance of an attorney on record substantially affected the start or progress of the case.

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