State to pay half of Devant’s legal costs

A High Court judge has ordered the Minister of National Security to pay former government minister Devant Maharaj only half of his legal bill for failing to prepare annual reports under the Interception of Communications Act for four years.

Justice Frank Seepersad made the order yesterday.

Although he was critical of the minister’s failure to prepare and lay the reports in Parliament as he is required to by statute, he was also critical of Maharaj’s failure to do anything when he was a member of Cabinet for the years 2012 to 2015 when the reports were not filed.

Maharaj sought declarations that the minister’s failure was a breach of his statutory duty by failing to comply with the requirements of the act to file the reports in Parliament until Maharaj’s application for judicial review had been filed in 2016.

The court declined to do so on a previous occasion, since all of the reports had been prepared and taken to Parliament.

Attorneys for the State resisted the application for costs.

In ordering the reduced amount, Seepersad was critical of both administrations, past and present, for not complying with the statutory obligations under the act.

“Those entrusted with leadership have an obligation to ensure that they discharge their statutory mandate,” he said. “The reality is that since 2010 to 2015 no report was filed, even after a change in administration.”

Seepersad said there was no dispute there was no compliance, but upbraided Maharaj for also doing nothing while he was a minister of government, especially since he said he had a personal concern about being wire tapped when the legislation was passed in the Parliament.

“Since 2010, he did nothing,” the judge said.

He also said nothing was done “to protect the public’s interests” even after there was a change in government.