The five-day hearing to determine whether the Constitutional Court erred in striking a 2023 amendment extending the tenure of incumbent Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Paula Llewellyn has ended.

The panel of Appeal Court justices hearing the appeal led by Justice Jennifer Straw said, given the sensitivity of the matter and the urgency, a ruling will be handed down “as early as possible in the new term”.

Jamaica’s circuit courts operate on a three-term system: the first one, the Hilary Term, runs January-April; the Easter Term runs from April to July; and then Michaelmas, which runs September to December.

The appeal centres on the validity of the 2023 Act which amended sections 96 (1) and 121 (1) of the Jamaican Constitution, giving the right to the incumbent DPP to be able to extend her term of office beyond the retirement age.

WATCH: Court rules second extension of DPP’s tenure unconstitutional

In April the full court — comprising justices Tricia Hutchinson Shelly, Simone Wolfe-Reece, and Sonya Wint Blair — had ruled that while the amendment to the Act increasing the retirement age of the DPP from 60 to 65 is constitutional, the new provision introduced into the constitution via a second amendment, giving the DPP the right to elect to remain in office, is “not a valid section and is severed from the constitution because the process remains unchanged for extending the retirement age”.

Consequently, the panel said the section is “unconstitutional, null, void and of no legal effect”.