The Court of Appeal held a short commemoration in honor of the late Jacques Hodoul on Thursday 13 May. Jacques Hodoul was appointed a Justice of the Court of Appeal in 2005, a post he held until retirement. He was also a teacher, lawyer, held a few ministerial portfolios and had an active political career.
We are reproducing here the statements made by President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Anthony Fernando during the commemoration below:
IN MEMORY OF JUSTICE JACQUES HODOUL
I wish before the commencement of proceedings today to spend two minutes of silence to express our sincere sorrow and sympathy to Marook Pardiwalla, Jean-Jacques Hodoul and the family of Justice Hodoul, our much-loved colleague on the Court of Appeal, on his passing away.
Justice Jacques Hodoul started his career as a teacher before he proceeded for his law studies. Fle rvas admitted as a Barrister of the Inns of Court of Law at Middle Temple London. Returning; to iris motherland Justice Hodoul practiced for a short while at the Unofficial Bar, before he took up to active politics. He held several ministerial posts, that of Education, Lands and Foreign Affairs. In 1991 he formed his own political party, the Seychelles Movement for Democracy, of which he was the Leader.
In the year 2005, he was appointed as a Justice of Appeal of this Court, and was a member of the Court until his retirement. lt is when he became a Justice of Appeal I came to know Justice Hodoul closely and that when
I joined the Court of Appeal in January 2009. Prior to that I had been opposed to him as counsel, when I was the Attorney General. He was a genial member, unruffled at all times, learned in the Law with an ideal judicial temperament.
He will always be remembered for the landmark judgment he wrote in the case of Gappy v/s Barallon, which changed the procedure that had been followed up to that time in cases of defamation. Justice Hodoul held that in case of defamation there was no necessity to have the defamatory words uttered in Creole, translated into
English, since Creole is one of our national languages. There is also the case of Mancienne v/s the Government of Seychelles, where I appeared before Justice Hodoul, as amicus curiae, when I was the Attorney General.
In the case of Mancienne he gave a judgment, agreeing with my submissions and dissenting the other two Justices of Appeal upholding the right of expression as Mr. Macienne, guaranteed under the Constitution. He also held that Mr. Mancienne had been denied a fair hearing, by the then Chief Justice. In Mancienne, Justice Hodoul stated that his principal concern is his duty to uphold the Constitution of the Republic which embodies the constitutional lights of its citizens.
In conclusion I wish to have a copy of today’s proceedings be forwarded to his farmily with the message that our words of sympathy may note wipe away your tears, or will not ease your pain, but the memories we hold of Justice Hodoul will remain forever.