10 women write a letter of complaint against the Chief Justice to the PM and AG

Ten women have written a letter of complaint to Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka and Attorney General Siromi Turaga against Chief Justice Kamal Kumar.

The ten women are Shamima Ali, Judy Compain, Elizabeth Fong, Bernadette Ganilau, Patricia Imrana Jalal, Seni Nabou, Nalini Singh, Shiromani Priscilla Singh, Salote Qalo and Makereta Waqavonono.

The complaint is in relation to the case where 7 women filed a constitutional redress case to challenge the legality of the new legislation requiring women to change their names to their married names in their birth certificates if they wished to vote in their married names under which they were already registered to vote, or to otherwise use their married names for legal purposes.

The case was filed on 17th November, 2021.

The women in the complaint letter have made allegations of delayed justice and indirect sex and gender discrimination.

They are also calling for an inquiry into the Chief Justice's alleged incompetence, unjudicial, and unbecoming conduct, in failing to deliver a judgement in a timely manner thereby affecting the constitutional rights of some or part of approximately 100,000 women to vote.

We have sent questions to Chief Justice Kamal Kumar and Attorney General Siromi Turaga.