By Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
TAX CASES in the Revenue Court are piling up because no judge has been appointed to fill the vacancy since Justice Courtenay Orr, Judge of the Revenue Court, died in April.
A check yesterday revealed there were about 15 cases pending on the trial list. Some of the cases have been on the list since last year.
Gloria Cover, the Judicial Secretary, was unable to say when a judge would be appointed.
Legal sources said the Act governing the Revenue Court barred other judges from hearing tax cases.
Section 6 (1) of the Judicature (Revenue Court) Act states "The Judge of the Court shall be a Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court nominated by the Governor-General acting on the advice of the Judicial Service Commission, being a person appearing to that Commission to be versed in the law relating to income tax."
"It is ironic that there should be such a stipulation in the law because most of the Revenue Court cases end up in the Court of Appeal and the judges there are not former Revenue Court Judges," a Supreme Court judge said yesterday. He said most of the Supreme Court judges had to deal with far more technical and difficult cases than those which come before the Revenue Court. He said if it were not for the stipulation in the Act, then other judges could hear the cases.
The Revenue Court had its first sitting on May 18, 1972 at 4 Camp Road, Kingston. It was set up to deal with all matters relating to the collection of taxes and to function as a court of first instance as well as an appeal court in tax matters. Someone who has a dispute with a Tax Commissioner can appeal to the Revenue Court.
However, the Revenue Court collects very little revenue because the Resident Magis-trates' Court deals with the bulk of the tax cases. An attorney-at-law said it was far cheaper to institute proceedings in the Resident Magistrates' courts once there was an assessment, rather than in the Revenue Court.
"So, in practice, unless there is an appeal from the Tax Commissioner, the bulk of the revenue collection is done in the Resident Magistrates' Court," the attorney-at-law said.
