Acting Chief Justice (ag.) Navindra Singh, on Monday, 8 September 2025, granted judicial review orders in favour of the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU), including declarations and an order of certiorari, quashing a decision by Magistrate Dylon Bess.
The matter arose from Magistrate Bess’s dismissal of three criminal cases in the Diamond Magistrates’ Court against convicted fraudster Dave Rajeshwar Persaud, despite the court-assigned clerk informing SOCU prosecutors that the cases had been adjourned to June 27, 2025 at 09:00 hours.
According to SOCU, on the morning of Thursday, 29 May 2025, at 06:39 hours, prosecutors received a WhatsApp message from the Diamond Court clerk advising that Magistrate Bess would be sitting at the Leguan Magistrates’ Court that day and requested a proposed adjournment date. SOCU suggested June 27, 2025, which the clerk confirmed.
On the said date at around 12:20 hours, SOCU prosecutors reported that after waiting more than three hours for the matters to be called in the Diamond Magistrates’ Court, they enquired about their status. At that time, they were informed by Magistrate Bess that on the morning of May 29, 2025, he had joined the Diamond Court’s Zoom platform whilst sitting at the Leguan Magistrates’ Court to hear Persaud’s matters. Persaud had appeared virtually from Lusignan Prison.
Guyana Standard understands that there was no representative of SOCU on the Zoom platform, and Magistrate Bess dismissed the matters.
SOCU subsequently filed judicial review proceedings in the High Court seeking several declarations and an order of certiorari to quash the decision on the grounds that the magistrate acted “illegally, irrationally, arbitrarily, exercised his discretion wrongly, failed to satisfy or observe conditions or procedures required by law, and breached the principles of natural justice by dismissing the criminal charges”.
Acting Chief Justice Navindra Singh found that the magistrate’s decision to determine the matters in a different magisterial district was wholly improper. He further held that, at a minimum, the sitting magistrate ought to have enquired from his court-assigned clerk about the absence of the prosecution before dismissing the cases.
The Court consequently granted SOCU’s application for judicial review and ordered that Magistrate Dylon Bess’s decision to dismiss the three criminal matters in the Diamond Magistrates’ Court whilst sitting in the Leguan Magistrates’ Court be quashed. SOCU was represented by Attorney-at-Law and Prosecutor David Brathwaite.
The head of SOCU, Deputy Commissioner Fazil Karimbaksh, emphasised that it was regrettable that SOCU had to resort to court action to ensure compliance with the magistrate, since “magistrates are creatures of statute and cannot arbitrarily and without jurisdiction make pronouncements which are contrary to the law and rules governing the administration of justice”.
He further stated that state agencies are accountable to the public in the administration of justice, noting that justice must not only be done but must be seen to be done, not only for an accused person but also for victims.
