The lawyer defending Bermuda's controversial conscription policy came under fire from Chief Justice Richard Ground at Supreme Court yesterday.

The judge accused Acting Solicitor General Huw Shepheard of engaging in "a hell of a gamble" in not putting evidence of administrative procedures before him to consider.

During the Judicial Review of the policy, which concluded yesterday, lawyer for campaigners Bermudians Against the Draft (BAD) Delroy Duncan claimed the way the controversial policy is administered is "immoral and unlawful".

He argued that no steps had been taken to recruit volunteers before forcing men to serve. This, he said, breached the Defence Act which says conscription should only be enforced if it is proved there is an inadequate number of volunteers.

Mr. Duncan also submitted that conscription might be unnecessary if more efforts were made to recruit women to the Bermuda Regiment. He claimed the policy of conscripting only men amounting to gender discrimination.

BAD hopes to see conscription outlawed and replaced by a volunteer force if they win the case.

Lawyer Mr. Shepheard, rebutted the arguments from BAD, claiming compulsory service option is always an option available to keep the Regiment at full strength. Attempts to recruit volunteers, he said, should be made in tandem with conscription – not as a prerequisite before conscription is allowed.

Mr. Justice Ground told Mr. Shepheard the Defence Act would not have been drafted using the words "proves inadequate" in relation to volunteerism if this was so.

Stating he was having difficulty following his argument, he said: "What troubles me, is that you seem to have staked everything on an uncertain interpretation of Section Four (of the Defence Act) and are therefore putting no evidence."

He criticised Mr. Shepheard for not providing information on Regiment recruitment drives, pointing out the only references before him were old newspaper articles submitted by BAD.

"We're depending on newspaper reports to find out what's going on within the Regiment," complained the Chief Justice, pointing out that Mr. Shepheard had access to recruitment information and "it's a hell of a gamble" not to put it before the court.

On gender discrimination, Mr. Shepheard said Parliament did not change the approach to conscription after it passed the Human Rights Act which, according to BAD, the "men-only" conscription policy breaches.

Mr. Justice Ground took issue, telling Mr. Shepheard that Parliament deemed the Human Rights Act to apply to all existing legislation.

Arguing that the Regiment does not exclude women, Mr. Shepheard conferred with Regiment Commanding Officer Lt. Col. William White before telling the court that 13 women are currently serving and 137 have done in the past. This earned a further reprimand from the Chief Justice for failing to put this before the court in writing prior to his verbal submissions.

"That's all material. Why the hell was that not put in? You've had months to get this ready. That's precisely the sort of thing that should have been put before the court," he chided.

Mr. Justice Ground will give his judgment at a later date.