Honour High Court's ruling

RICHARDSON DHALAI

FORMER attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj has appealed to the government to honour a recent decision by the High Court which was upheld by the Privy Council to pay 134 municipal police offices compensatory damages for the state’s violation of the officers' inability to access the Industrial Court.

The court, in a 295 page judgment, awarded the officers approximately $79 million. The case took 15 years to be determined at the various stages and was heard in the local High Court and Court of Appeal before it was heard in the London-based Privy Council.

Addressing a meeting at Gaston Courts in Chaguanas on Saturday, Maharaj commended the officers for not giving up on the case.

“Today I feel very proud that after 15 years you have decided not to give up your rights, you have decided to stand up for what you believe in and you decided not to compromise your principles and to fight a grave injustice which was being done to municipal police officers.

"This case and the judgement in this case, this is the highest award given by any court in the eastern Caribbean and possibly in the commonwealth for a claim, for damages in constitutional law. So this case will go down in the annals of legal history,” Maharaj said.

He said the court had given the government a “stay of execution” of 42 days before the payment is due and expressed the hope that they would not have to levy against the government to get the monies due to the officers.

“I don’t think you want a situation in which you would have to go and levy against the government of TT, probably go and levy against some of the buildings belonging to the government. I would hope that the government of TT takes note, the court gave them 42 days, a stay of execution of 42 days. There is a serious obligation on the government to take urgent action.”

He said there was precedent for individuals or organisations taking action against a government and cited the case of the Grenadian government and then daughter of former PM Eric Gairy. “The government of Grenada learnt that, the daughter of Mr Gairy had a claim against the government and the government was not paying it, and she took steps and the government of Grenada had to pay it.”

He said the case showed that every person could now challenge any decision made by a judge, a court or the executive arm of the government.