THE Judicial Review Court yesterday reserved its decision on whether or not the Finsac enquiry chairman Justice Boyd Carey should be disqualified from the sitting and the probe declared null and void.

The court reserved its decision following final arguments from lawyers representing both the claimants and the defendants — Carey, Charles Ross and Worrick Bogle — in the Supreme Court hearing.

Lawyers are expected to hear next week when the decision will be handed down.

The claimants — former Finance Minister Omar Davies, ex-financial secretary Shirley Tyndall, former Finsac chairman Patrick Hylton and the Jamaica Redevelopment Foundation Inc — are challenging Carey’s decision not to withdraw from the enquiry. The claimants are also asking the Judicial Review Court to declare the commission null and void.

Carey’s chairmanship is being challenged because of an alleged debt that was taken over by Finsac after the collapse. The claimants are contending that Carey is among the group of persons the commission is tasked with looking at how they were treated by Finsac.

Earlier yesterday, attorney Paul Beswick, who represents Ross, rebutted suggestions that there may be bias on his part because of statements he made following the collapse of the financial sector in the mid-1990s.

Beswick said that Ross’ statement on the then Government’s high interest rate policies, among others things, does not mean that he has pre-judged the suspended Finsac enquiry which started hearings last September.

The attorney argued that Ross should not and cannot be disqualified as a commission member because of comments he made in a professional capacity in newspaper articles.

Beswick said also that the comments do not mean he is unfit to conduct an unbiased enquiry. He said if that was the case, nobody would be left to sit on the commission because persons have expressed one view or another on the matter.

The claimants are also seeking the ouster of the commission’s attorney RNA Henriques.