Appeal over acting Chief Justice appointment failed Featured
Lord Afeaki
24 November, 2021. A prominent lawyer in Tonga says a petition to King Tupou VI over his controversial appointment of Lord Afeaki as acting Chief Justice appears to have come to nothing.
Afeaki wasappointed as acting Chief Justice to cover for Michael Whitten who is on four months leave overseas.
Lord Afeaki - who is not a judge - is the chair of the judicial appointments panel which gave him the job.
A number of senior lawyers, including Clive Edwards, raised concerns about the appointment.
Edwards told RNZ they didn't have any concerns about Afeaki himself, but rather the selection process.
"The normal procedure in the past is that while the CJ is away on leave the senior judge - puisne judge - becomes acting CJ.
"But in this case it was brought from outside by one of the panel, and we do not believe that the panel should be promoted to the rank of a judge, in preference to the senior judge in the court."
Afeaki has been sitting in the Supreme Court and Edwards said that with no response from the king the matter seemed to have now run its course.
- RNZI
