Derek Achong

Se­nior Re­porter

derek.achong@guardian.co.tt

The T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) Pro­mo­tion Ad­vi­so­ry Board has failed in its bid to ob­tain a stay of a judge’s rul­ing that its fail­ure to of­fer re-in­ter­views in ex­ten­u­at­ing cir­cum­stances is ir­ra­tional, un­fair, and il­le­gal.

De­liv­er­ing a de­ci­sion on Wednes­day, Court of Ap­peal Judge, Ron­nie Boodoos­ingh, dis­missed an ap­pli­ca­tion for a stay of the judge’s rul­ing.

The ap­pli­ca­tion was part of a law­suit brought by Sgt Sophia Nar­ine against the board.

In Oc­to­ber 2020, Nar­ine at­tend­ed an in­ter­view be­fore the board as part of her bid to be pro­mot­ed to the rank of In­spec­tor.

She had a se­vere pan­ic at­tack dur­ing the in­ter­view and had to be tak­en for med­ical at­ten­tion.

Nar­ine re­quest­ed a re-in­ter­view but was de­nied on the ba­sis that such was not pro­vid­ed by the board.

In March, High Court Judge Mar­garet Mo­hammed up­held Nar­ine’s case as she ruled that the board’s pol­i­cy on re-in­ter­views was ir­ra­tional, un­fair, and il­le­gal. Jus­tice Mo­hammed al­so ruled that Nar­ine had been treat­ed un­fair­ly and or­dered that she be re-in­ter­viewed in 21 days.

The board ap­pealed the judg­ment and made the ap­pli­ca­tion for a stay of ex­e­cu­tion pend­ing the out­come of it (the ap­peal).

In re­ject­ing the stay, Jus­tice Boodoos­ingh not­ed that mem­bers of the board told Nar­ine about the pos­si­bil­i­ty of a re-in­ter­view be­fore con­sult­ing with the TTPS’s Le­gal Unit and in­form­ing her of the pol­i­cy.

“There is no dis­cernible er­ror in the judge’s ap­proach based on a pre­lim­i­nary ex­am­i­na­tion of the judg­ment and the ev­i­dence,” Jus­tice Boodoos­ingh said.

“In the cir­cum­stances, I am of the view that the Board has not demon­strat­ed good prospects of suc­cess of the ap­peal,” he added.

He al­so ruled that Nar­ine would suf­fer more prej­u­dice than the board if the stay was grant­ed.

“Ms Nar­ine is the per­son pri­mar­i­ly prej­u­diced by the de­ci­sion not to re-in­ter­view her and she con­tin­ues to be prej­u­diced even af­ter the judge’s or­der,” Jus­tice Boodoos­ingh said.

As part of his de­ci­sion, Jus­tice Boodoos­ingh gave di­rec­tions for fil­ings for the ap­peal, which will be heard on No­vem­ber 15.

The board was rep­re­sent­ed by Justin Phelps, Adi­ta Ram­du­lar, Am­ri­ta Ram­sook, and Kha­dine Matthew. Anand Ram­lo­gan, SC, Kent Sam­lal, Jayan­ti Lutch­me­di­al, Jotelle Lutawan, and Jared Ja­groo rep­re­sent­ed Nar­ine.

—Derek Achong