STATUTES REQUIRING CONSTITUTIONAL ALIGNMENT __________________________________________________________________________________ Tribunal is deemed to be a specialised Division of the High Court for the purposes of section 171(3) of the Constitution. That statement creates a considerable doubt, because section 3 of this Act makes it quite clear that the Tribunal is a separate body and does not form part of the High Court. To avoid the doubt, this Act should be amended as soon as possible. 36. Interception of Communications Act [Chapter 11:20] This Act needs to be revised to bring it into line with section 57 of the Constitution, which guarantees everyone’s right not to have the privacy of their communications infringed. In particular there is a need for the following changes: • Interception warrants are issued by the Minister of Transport and Communications, and there is no judicial or independent monitoring of their issue or of the interception activities conducted under their authority. They should be issued by a court or at least by an independent judicial officer. • Some interception warrants are renewable by the Minister, others by the Administrative Court. All should be renewed by the Court. • Orders for the detention and examination of postal articles are at present issued by the Minister. Again, they should be issued by a court or an independent judicial officer. • Warrants issued by the Minister are reviewed by the Prosecutor-General, who is hardly impartial. There is no such review of detention orders. Both warrants and orders should be reviewed by an impartial person or body, preferably a judge. 37. Interpretation Act [Chapter 1:01]* Section 17(1)(d) & (e) provide that the repeal of an enactment does not affect offences committed under it, so prosecutions can be instituted for such offences after the repeal. This is contrary to section 70(2)(l) of the Constitution, which states that no one may be convicted of an act or omission that is no longer an offence. 38. Judges Salaries, Allowances and Pensions Act [Chapter 7:08] The Act applies only to judges of the Supreme Court and the High Court. It should be extended to judges of the Constitutional Court, the Administrative Court and the Labour Court since they are all judges for the purposes of the Constitution and their conditions of service should be fixed in the same way. Under sections 3 and 4 of this Act, the salaries, allowances and pensions payable to judges are fixed from time to time by the President. This is unconstitutional. Section 188(1) of the Constitution states that judges are entitled to the salaries, allowances and other benefits fixed from time to time by the Judicial Service Commission with the approval of the President given after consultation with the Minister of Justice and on the recommendation of the Minister of Finance. 39. Labour Act [Chapter 28:01]* This Act, despite having been aligned to the Constitution by the General Laws Amendment Act, 2016, needs further alignment: • Section 18 gives women employees a right to 98 days’ paid maternity leave provided they have been in employment for at least a year. This proviso is not mentioned in section 65(7) of the Constitution and is unconstitutional. 12