Former AG Doodnauth Singh passes on

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Former Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Doodnauth Singh passed away Wednesday evening while undergoing treatment at the Dr Balwant Singh Hospital.
Singh, a senior counsel and former chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission, had undergone bypass surgery several years ago. He retired from legal practice and serving as a Cabinet minister in the Bharrat Jagdeo administration and a Member of Parliament in 2009.

Former Attorney General Doodnauth Singh
Former Attorney General
Doodnauth Singh

President Donald Ramotar, in an immediate reaction, said he is saddened by the news of the death of the former AG. “Mr Singh, also a senior counsel, was a man of high intellect, having amassed great experience during his legal life, both locally and internationally. He served Guyana with utmost distinction, pride and selflessness,” Ramotar said in a message released by the Government Information Agency (GINA).
He said Singh had given decades of service to Guyana, mostly in the legal profession, in which he was known as an outstanding legal luminary.
During a special farewell retirement ceremony for him in the House, the then Speaker of the National Assembly, Ralph Ramkarran was quoted in a section of the media describing Singh as a man “always on the side of justice”, and noted his accomplishments as an attorney across the Caribbean.
Ramkarran hailed him for his fearless representation of clients in an era when it invited unwelcome sanctions. “It is a fearlessness that has marked his character, then and now,” Ramkarran remarked, while noting that their first encounter was in 1973, when they represented 17 people, most of them political activists, charged with various criminal offences before the elections of that year. Among them was current People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/ C) Member of Parliament Indra Chandarpal.
Although the lawyers appealed, since the defendants were refused bail for offences that carried no imprisonment, the case was dismissed.

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