Denial by the PM
63.
The fair minded and informed observer, not being unduly suspicious,
would be slow to conclude that the denial by the PM, of the receipt or issue by
him of WhatsApp messages with the CJ in relation to housing, yet allowed the
possibility that the CJ may have sent such messages. The fair minded and
informed observer could not be criticized as dismissing as fanciful such a
suggestion and rejecting the mental gymnastics required to accept this
possibility. This is especially so because he would have no information about
whose phone it was on which these messages were supposedly seen, or how
they came to be seen. He would be faced with a choice between accepting as
true a WhatsApp message unseen by him, and of unidentified provenance, and
the clear, emphatic, and repeated denial of at least their receipt, by a Prime
Minister, in official correspondence to the Law Association. It would be difficult
to contemplate an independent, fair minded, informed and rational observer
preferring to accept the former over the latter. He would therefore rationally
accept the first- hand denials of their existence in the circumstances outlined
above, by the alleged parties thereto.
Disclosure
64.
It follows from the above that the fair minded and informed observer
could not expect disclosure of communications, which apart from being denied
by the parties thereto, he would not rationally expect to exist. Again it must be
emphasised that this is not a conclusive finding as to the non-existence or
otherwise of WhatsApp communications between the CJ and PM. This is, and
only is, an application of the test applicable in relation to the apprehension of
a real possibility of bias, in the circumstances as now known to the reasonable,
fair–minded, and informed observer.
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