The Anti-Corruption Commission (Icac) and the police are opposing Vivek Pursun’s application for a Mandamus Order. The case, called in the Supreme Court on Monday morning, has been adjourned to October 23 to allow the Icac and the police to submit their affidavits in court.
The application seeks to compel Icac to provide documents in connection with granting the lease to Eco Deer Park Association. It also requests that Minister Maneesh Gobin be questioned “under caution” by the Icac and the police in the investigation into allegations of bribery surrounding granting a lease to Eco Deer Park Association in the Grand-Bassin region.
The term “mandamus”, which comes from Latin, is an order issued by a court to a government official, a lower court or a public authority. “Its purpose is to enjoin them to perform a specific task that is their duty under the law, or to prevent them from doing something that constitutes a breach of their public duty under the provisions of the law,” says the lawyer.
In other words, according to Pazhany Rangasamy, Vivek Pursun’s solicitor, the purpose of a mandamus application “is to remedy the defects of justice”. He says such an order is granted in “special circumstances, where good cause is shown”.
