Court of Appeal rules in favour of Energy Ministry

Three appellate court judges have set aside an order of the High Court which allowed two gas stations in South Trinidad to resume operations.

Chief Justice Ivor Archie and Justice of Appeal Nolan Bereaux last week overturned the ruling of Justice Carol Gobin who, in 2014, found the Ministry of Energy went beyond its powers when it decided to shut down two gas stations owned by brothers Prakash and Adesh Maharaj.

Although Justice of Appeal Peter Jamadar did not agree with his colleagues, he concurred with the setting-aside of Gobin’s declaration for the resumption of operations of the gas stations.

Adesh Maharaj took over the King’s Wharf station from his father, in whose name the licence was assigned.

After his father died, NP told him it was prepared to treat him as the licensed holder until the licence was reassigned to his name.

In Prakash Maharaj’s case, he was granted a retail marketing licence in 2001, had been continually issued a renewed licence until 2010 and his annual fee was paid up until 2012, since up until 2010, renewed licences had not been formally issued by the ministry. In November and December 2012, the men were accused of breaches of the petroleum regulations and impropriety, and the stations were shut down by the ministry.

Gobin found the ministry’s action was “ultra vires, null and void and of no effect.” The ministry appealed.

In his ruling, Bereaux said while there continued to be a laissez-faire approach to environmental degradation and to issues of public safety in the use of hydrocarbons, the decision shut down the gas stations should not be lightly dismissed or second-guessed.

“We live in a country that is only now becoming sensitive to the negative impact of hydrocarbon pollution on the environment after more than a century of oil exploitation with the attendant pollution hazards,” he said.

Archie said where there was a clear and imminent danger to public health and safety, the ministry must be able to act swiftly to protect the public interest.

While he found the ministry created the unfortunate situation by the protracted review of the licensing regime, Archie held the ministry had an implied power to suspend operations, although a licence had no expressed provisions for such.

“While it is unfortunate that no sanctions have been incorporated into the standard form licence, it does not follow that the ministry does not have the power to suspend a licence,” he said.

The Chief Justice was also of the opinion that the ministry’s action was justifiable when there was a grave risk to lives.

Archie and Bereaux held they were not prepared to second-guess the ministry’s decision and warned against judges substituting their own judgment in cases which required specialist knowledge.

Bereaux said the then heavy subsidisation of diesel in TT made it the cheapest in the Caribbean and open to sale by underground operators.