A Supreme Court ruling yesterday has cleared the way for Prime Minister Bruce Golding to name new members to the Public Service Commission (PSC).

Supreme Court judge Justice Donald McIntosh yesterday refused to grant an extension to Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller barring the Prime Minister from naming new members to the PSC.

However, attorney-at-law Bert Samuels, who represents Mrs. Simpson Miller, cautioned against the naming of new members to the PSC, arguing that the court was still to hear on January 10 the matter of the dismissal by the Prime Minister of the former PSC members.

"If we succeed in that court hearing, that his original act to remove those members was void and of no effect, then we would have succeeded. It may land us in a constitutional crisis, but let us wait until then," he said.

Unconstitutionality

Mr. Samuels insisted that if the court ruled that the Prime Minister's action in dismissing the former PSC members was unconstitutional, the naming of new PSC members could also be deemed unconstitutional.

Yesterday's hearing followed a writ of prohibition brought by the Opposition, which barred the Government from appointing new members to the PSC.

Justice McIntosh granted the writ of prohibition last week.

The court order, which expired yesterday, prevented the Prime Minister from filling the vacancies resulting from the dismissal of the previous PSC members.

Mrs. Simpson Miller took out the writ after she failed to stop Mr. Golding from recommending that PSC members be fired for misconduct.

She wants the former members of the commission to be offered a fair hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal into allegations of misbehaviour.

The Government and the PSC have been at odds since the commission recommended that Professor Stephen Vasciannie be appointed the new Solicitor General.