The High Court has dismissed a challenge to the appointment of the Teaching Service Commission, ruling that President Dr. Irfaan Ali acted lawfully when he appointed the seven-member body despite there being no elected Leader of the Opposition at the time.
In a decision handed down on June 19, Justice Damone Younge found that the absence of consultation with the Opposition Leader did not invalidate the appointments because the post was vacant and meaningful consultation was therefore impossible.
The case had been brought by APNU’s Terrence Campbell, who argued that the President’s appointments were unconstitutional because Article 207(2)(d) of the Constitution requires the President to appoint three members of the Teaching Service Commission only after meaningful consultation with the Leader of the Opposition.
Campbell had asked the court to declare the appointments unlawful and to quash the appointments made under that constitutional provision.
However, the court held that while consultation is a constitutional requirement, it only arises when such consultation is capable of being undertaken.
Justice Younge noted that the office of the Leader of the Opposition had been vacant since July 4, 2025, and remained unfilled when the appointments were made on December 31, 2025.
The judge ruled that because the President had no control over the filling of that office, and because there was no one with whom he could consult, there could be no breach of the constitutional duty to engage in meaningful consultation.
The court also accepted the Attorney General’s argument that delaying the appointments indefinitely would have left the Teaching Service Commission non-functional and could have disrupted the administration of education in Guyana.
In her ruling, Justice Younge said the Constitution must be interpreted in a practical and purposive way to avoid paralysing important constitutional bodies.
She found that the President’s power to appoint members of the Commission was not extinguished by the vacancy in the opposition office and that it was necessary for him to act to ensure continuity in governance.
The judge said that leaving the education system without a functioning Teaching Service Commission would have exposed it to uncertainty and disruption.
As a result, the Fixed Date Application filed by Campbell was dismissed.
The court also ordered that each side bear its own legal costs, noting the public interest nature of the proceedings.
