sto­ries by Derek Achong

Se­nior Re­porter

derek.achong@guardian.co.tt

A High Court Judge has pro­vid­ed guid­ance on the cri­te­ria for ap­point­ments to the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion (PolSC). 

De­liv­er­ing a judg­ment, High Court Judge Robin Mo­hammed re­solved a le­gal dis­pute over the is­sue which arose when two per­sons were ap­point­ed to the com­mis­sion in 2013. 

While Jus­tice Mo­hammed ruled that the duo were not suit­able can­di­dates based on the pro­vi­sions of the Con­sti­tu­tion, he not­ed that his de­ci­sion did not retroac­tive­ly in­val­i­date de­ci­sions tak­en by the com­mis­sion dur­ing their three-year tenure over a decade ago. 

The con­sti­tu­tion­al case was brought by for­mer Pub­lic Ser­vice head and diplo­mat, the late Regi­nald Du­mas, af­ter the then-pres­i­dent ap­point­ed Roa­mar Achat-Saney and Dr James Arm­strong. 

Du­mas was ini­tial­ly blocked from pur­su­ing the law­suit on the ba­sis that he was not per­son­al­ly ag­griev­ed by the de­ci­sion. 

How­ev­er, both the Court of Ap­peal and the Unit­ed King­dom-based Privy Coun­cil ruled that he could still pur­sue the case seek­ing the prop­er con­struc­tion of the Con­sti­tu­tion in the pub­lic’s in­ter­est. 

Du­mas passed away in March 2024, at the age of 88, with the case still pend­ing. 

The law­suit dealt with the in­ter­pre­ta­tion of Sec­tion 122(3) of the Con­sti­tu­tion, which gives the Pres­i­dent the pow­er to ap­point mem­bers of the com­mis­sion af­ter con­sul­ta­tion with the Prime Min­is­ter and Op­po­si­tion Leader. 

It states that can­di­dates must be qual­i­fied and ex­pe­ri­enced in one or more dis­ci­plines of law, fi­nance, so­ci­ol­o­gy or man­age­ment. 

Du­mas chal­lenged Achat-Saney’s ap­point­ment in the dis­ci­plines of law and so­ci­ol­o­gy on the ba­sis that she on­ly qual­i­fied to prac­tise law less than a year be­fore her ap­point­ment. 

Re­gard­ing Dr Arm­strong, Du­mas sug­gest­ed that his qual­i­fi­ca­tions and em­i­nence in ur­ban plan­ning did not qual­i­fy him to be ap­point­ed for the dis­ci­plines of man­age­ment and fi­nance. 

In de­fence of the case, the Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al claimed that “qual­i­fied” is not con­fined to a for­mal ter­tiary qual­i­fi­ca­tion, but ex­tends to abil­i­ty, skill, tal­ent and knowl­edge, how­ev­er ac­quired. 

It al­so claimed that  “ex­pe­ri­enced” is not con­fined to ex­pe­ri­ence gained af­ter the at­tain­ment of any qual­i­fi­ca­tion. 

Jus­tice Mo­hammed agreed with the wide de­f­i­n­i­tion sug­gest­ed by the AG’s Of­fice. 

Deal­ing with Achat-Saney’s ap­point­ment, Jus­tice Mo­hammed found that she was qual­i­fied un­der the dis­ci­pline of law. 

How­ev­er, he found that the Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence de­gree in Eng­lish Lit­er­a­ture and So­cial Sci­ences, which she ob­tained in 1976, did not meet the cri­te­ria for the dis­ci­pline of so­ci­ol­o­gy. 

“A joint gen­er­al de­gree of that kind does not ev­i­dence sus­tained study of so­ci­ol­o­gy as a dis­crete field, and the De­fen­dant has not shown that so­ci­ol­o­gy formed any sub­stan­tial part of its cur­ricu­lum,” Jus­tice Mo­hammed said. 

In terms of Dr Arm­strong, Jus­tice Mo­hammed not­ed that he was not suit­able as he did not hold any ter­tiary qual­i­fi­ca­tion of any kind in ei­ther man­age­ment or fi­nance. 

Jus­tice Mo­hammed not­ed the case was still im­por­tant de­spite Du­mas’ pass­ing and it be­com­ing aca­d­e­m­ic af­ter the duo’s term end­ed. 

“Mr Du­mas brought this claim with­out per­son­al griev­ance and with­out per­son­al gain, moved sole­ly by a con­vic­tion that the re­quire­ments of the Con­sti­tu­tion ought to be ho­n­oured and its in­sti­tu­tions prop­er­ly con­sti­tut­ed,” Jus­tice Mo­hammed said. 

“This judg­ment, there­fore, vin­di­cates the claim he brought, and in a very re­al and ma­te­r­i­al way, stands as part of his lega­cy,” he added. 

As part of his de­ci­sion, Jus­tice Mo­hammed or­dered the State to pay Du­mas’ le­gal fees for pur­su­ing the case. 

Du­mas was rep­re­sent­ed by Ramesh Lawrence Ma­haraj, SC, Elaine Green, SC, and Karl Hud­son-Phillips, QC, be­fore he died in 2014.

The AG’s Of­fice was rep­re­sent­ed by Vanes­sa Gopaul, Am­ri­ta Ram­sook and Vin­cent Jar­dine.