Minister for Justice Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum [left] and Opposition MP Professor Biman Prasad [right].

A parliamentary debate on amendments to the Legal Practitioners Act turned towards the judiciary for a brief moment this afternoon.

Opposition MP Professor Biman Prasad claimed there was controversy surrounding the recent decisions of various courts in relation to breaches of curfew and social distancing.

“I want to raise this. There’s been significant comment about the way in which the Acting Chief Justice, for example, has reversed decisions by magistrates and another judge about curfew breakers”.

However Minister for Justice Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum quickly shot this down.

“He’s started talking about the judiciary. Mr Speaker, if he’d read the judgements then he would see the anomalies that exist and he would not have the ability to raise those issues because he does not have the competency to look at the ratios in the those cases, and how the Honorable Chief Justice has held those matters not to be appropriate law”.

Following Prasad’s reference to court decisions on breaches of curfew and social gathering, Sayed-Khaiyum questioned whether the NFP leader had read the cases.

“He talked about those cases, he has not read those cases in full, that’s the problem. I have read those cases that’s why I can talk about them. It’s my job to read those cases and if he wanted to read them, those cases are available but he has not read them”.

Meanwhile, the initial amendment was passed by acclamation.