Paula Llewellyn has stepped aside as Director of Public Prosecutions amid the appeal.
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Radio Jamaica's legal analyst Dionne Jackson Miller reports
By Dionne Jackson Miller
King's Counsel Douglas Leys, who is representing Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn, on Tuesday argued that the controversial Constitutional Amendment Act, raising the retirement age of the DPP and Auditor General, was the government's solution to a gap created by the 2017 Pensions Act.
The Court of Appeal is continuing its hearing into the government's appeal, and the opposition's cross-appeal to the Supreme Court's ruling that struck out a section of the Act.
"Out in the cold" was how King's Counsel Douglas Leys characterised the situation in relation to early retirement and the DPP and Auditor General.
Mr. Leyes said that when the Pensions Act of 2017 raised the retirement age of public servants to 65 and changed the early retirement age to 60, while providing transitional arrangements for early retirement for public servants, it did not cover the DPP and the Auditor General. They previously had the right to early retirement at age 55.
He said the government had to find a way to address their situation, and the answer was this Constitutional Amendment Act, as both the DPP and Auditor General are officers of the Constitution.
But Mr. Leys disagreed with the submissions of King's Counsel Alan Wood, representing the government, who had said the provision that allowed the incumbent DPP to elect to remain in office after the age of 60 was a transitional provision.
According to Mr. Leys, this is not the case. He said it is a permanent arrangement that will allow any DPP in the future to elect to retire after the age of 60.
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