EXCLUSIVE: "Waste of tax payer money"

The judge at the centre of allegations of a possible conflict of interest over a case she was adjudicating has removed herself from it, Eastern Eye can reveal.

Last week (21), we exposed how the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) promoted Judge Lynn Griffin while she was hearing a complaint against it brought by the south Asian justice, Abbas Mithani.

Retired and current judges have reached out to this newspaper asking why Griffin took so long to take this action.

“She refuses to use the word ‘recuse’, but by withdrawing herself and the entire panel, this is exactly what she has done,” said one angry south Asian judge.

“It beggars belief that this judge doesn’t get that she has wasted huge amounts of public tax payer money at a time when the system in is dire financial straits.”

Two years ago, Eastern Eye revealed that the JAC spent £212,000 of public money on legal fees between 2019 and May 2023, defending court action brought by unsuccessful candidates for judicial positions.

This included spending almost £102,000 on a two-day hearing.

This is the same period spent in oral sittings for the Mithani case, although we do not know how much the JAC has spent defending its position so far.

“The problem with all of this,” said one judge, “is that we don’t know who’s signing off on spending good money after bad.

“No one’s accountable, and there seems to be little stomach by those who should be asking uncomfortable questions to do so.

“Why hasn’t parliament demanded explanations from the lady chief justice, the justice secretary, the boss of the JAC and the JAC chair?

“This lack of transparency smacks of an almighty cover up.”

Lack of transparency

This latest controversy comes at a time when journalists won an appeal to name judges who made decisions concerning Sara Sharif, the 10-year-old murdered by her father and stepmother.

Another south Asian judge added, “Judge Griffin and the JAC have a lot of questions to answer.

“These include why she didn’t recuse herself from the Mithani case the moment she applied for promotion, why she didn’t inform those involved in that case, and why did she only stepped down after Eastern Eye started to ask questions?

“This was clearly down to last week’s story.

“Do journalists really have to drag judges kicking and screaming through the court of public opinion or in which they literally preside to get answers?”

Eastern Eye has seen Griffin’s order where she makes clear that she is not recusing herself.

Instead, she has ruled that there should be an entirely new tribunal panel to decide “the complexity of the issues”.

“This is extraordinary,” said a senior retired judge. “To see an entire panel consisting of a judge and two side members apparently decide to walk away from a case and expect a new panel to do it over again is unique in my experience.

“Judges can recuse themselves, but here this is not what happened – indeed that was refused expressly.

“I have to question what on earth is going on in the UK judicial system.

“We’ll be in chaos if courts can simply choose not to conclude a case in circumstances where they’ve not decided that recusal is appropriate.

“One wonders what the cost to the taxpayer has been of the representation of the state and of the court, staff and judicial time wasted.”

Griffin has spent almost 16 months since the final oral hearing in September 2023 contemplating the case.

Eastern Eye approached the JAC and the judiciary for comment.

Mithani refused to comment.