A se­nior po­lice of­fi­cer from To­ba­go has been giv­en the green light to sue Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith over his han­dling of pro­mo­tions to the rank of Su­per­in­ten­dent. 

High Court Judge Eleanor Don­ald­son-Hon­ey­well yes­ter­day grant­ed act­ing Se­nior Supt Col­lis Hazel, of Rox­bor­ough, To­ba­go, leave to pur­sue his ju­di­cial re­view case against Grif­fith. 

In the law­suit, Hazel, who joined the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) in 1991, claimed that af­ter pass­ing the pro­mo­tion ex­am­i­na­tion and in­ter­view with the Pro­mo­tion Ad­vi­so­ry Board, he was placed at num­ber 46 on a mer­it list. 

On Sep­tem­ber 4, 2018, the first 45 of­fi­cers were pro­mot­ed. 

Hazel claims that al­though Grif­fith agreed to ex­tend the life of the mer­it list to Sep­tem­ber 3, 2020, he sub­se­quent­ly re­voked his de­ci­sion. 

In the law­suit, Hazel, who has been giv­en act­ing ap­point­ments, is claim­ing that Grif­fith’s de­ci­sion was un­rea­son­able as it was done with­out any warn­ing or con­sul­ta­tion. Hazel is al­so con­tend­ing that the is­sue has af­fect­ed sev­er­al oth­er se­nior of­fi­cers, who are sim­i­lar­ly cir­cum­stanced.

Hazel is seek­ing a de­c­la­ra­tion that he has been treat­ed un­fair­ly and an or­der di­rect­ing Grif­fith to pro­vide writ­ten rea­sons for the sud­den de­ci­sion to re­voke the list. 

He is al­so seek­ing an or­der to quash the de­ci­sion and de­clare it il­le­gal, null and void and of no le­gal ef­fect.

Hazel is be­ing rep­re­sent­ed by Anand Ram­lo­gan, SC, Alvin Pariags­ingh, and Alana Ram­baran. 

The law­suit is ex­pect­ed to come up for hear­ing with­in the next two months.