Derek Achong

Se­nior Re­porter

derek.achong@guardian.co.tt

A po­lice of­fi­cer, who is a qual­i­fied at­tor­ney, has se­cured a life­line in his bid to pur­sue a con­sti­tu­tion­al law­suit over be­ing de­nied an ex­emp­tion from the law com­po­nent of pro­mo­tion­al ex­am­i­na­tions.

De­liv­er­ing a de­ci­sion this week, Chief Jus­tice Ron­nie Boodoos­ingh and Ap­pel­late Judge Ge­of­frey Hen­der­son and Gillian Lucky up­held an ap­peal from act­ing Sergeant (Sgt) Za­heer Ali over a de­ci­sion of a judge to strike out his case against the Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al.

Ali served as a Spe­cial Re­serve Po­lice (SRP) for sev­er­al years be­fore he was ab­sorbed in­to the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS).

He qual­i­fied as an at­tor­ney-at-law and was as­signed to per­form the du­ties and func­tions of a le­gal of­fi­cer.

Ali filed the case through his lawyers, led by Kiel Tak­lals­ingh of Sov­er­eign Cham­bers, af­ter the Po­lice Ser­vice Ex­am­i­na­tion Board de­nied him ex­emp­tions for pro­mo­tion­al ex­am­i­na­tions to the rank of Cor­po­ral and Sergeant.

He claimed his con­sti­tu­tion­al rights to equal­i­ty of treat­ment from a pub­lic au­thor­i­ty and pro­tec­tion of the law were breached, as col­leagues with sim­i­lar qual­i­fi­ca­tions were grant­ed the ex­emp­tion in the past.

While the case was pend­ing, Ali still suc­cess­ful­ly wrote the ex­am­i­na­tion for both ranks. While he re­mains a po­lice of­fi­cer, he is cur­rent­ly as­signed to the Min­istry of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty’s Pol­i­cy De­part­ment.

Ali’s case was struck out by High Court Judge Maris­sa Robert­son on the ba­sis that it was an abuse of process be­cause he could have in­stead pur­sued a ju­di­cial re­view law­suit.

In its rul­ing, the ap­peal pan­el found that the ex­is­tence of a par­al­lel rem­e­dy was not de­ter­mi­na­tive on its own.

The judges sug­gest­ed that their col­league should have al­so con­sid­ered that Ali’s claim deals with the ar­bi­trary use of State pow­er and breach of his con­sti­tu­tion­al rights, which could not be raised in a ju­di­cial re­view case.

The out­come of the ap­peal means that the sub­stan­tive case would now have to be de­ter­mined by the judge.

Through the case, Ali is seek­ing a se­ries of de­c­la­ra­tions, an or­der di­rect­ing that he be grant­ed the ex­emp­tion, as well as com­pen­sa­tion for the breach­es of his rights.