Recent decision was a result of application filed by Mr O'Neill's attorney General, Dr. Allan Marat. Because that court action related to the current Parliament the SC's decision needed to be handed down within the lifetime of the present Parliament. The Supreme Court would have no doubt been fully cognizant of the issuing of writs that's why it basically reaffirmed its decision of 12 December 2011.
If after hearing Dr. Marat's application the SC had ruled that it would not hand down a decision because the election writs had been issued, the O'Neill regime may have felt that they had been denied justice and could have again complained about the judiciary. What Dr. Marat could have done is go back to the SC and applied for leave to discontinue the case on the grounds that the writs had been issued. That would have possibly been valid ground for the SC to then have been relieved of its jurisdiction over the case. Instead the O'Neill regime has been, in my view, mischievously blaming the CJ and other two Judges when they could have, as "RESPONSIBLE/MATURE Leaders" also taken steps to mitigate any chances of conflict. That would have been an honourable thing to do.
With regard to the argument on perception of bias, not many will be aware of the legal principle of "Competence Competence" - i.e., a Court/tribunal is empowered to determine, in the first instance, whether it is competent to deal with a matter where a challenge (on grounds of bias, amongst others) is raised with the Court/tribunal. A party who is still not satisfied with the decision on competence can then appeal to a higher Court. In my respectful view, the allegations of bias arose out of another mischievous allegation of improper conduct on the part of the CJ with the view of scandalizing the CJ so that he takes no further part in the matter. If one looks at it properly, there has been one party in this sorry saga that has featured prominently and had real poor choice of "TIMING" in relation to its actions ever since the filing of the SC Reference by the ESPG.
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"INSPIRING PASSION"
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