NGOs appeal High Court ruling on Todd Street land

FORMER attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, SC, said the Cabinet was not above the law as he announced his intention to appeal a High Court ruling in relation to government’s use of a plot of land in San Fernando.

He made this statement at the at the Krishna Mandir, Todd Street, San Fernando, on July 14, as he announced a decision by a group of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to appeal a decision by a High Court judge to dismiss their claim for judicial review to stop Housing Development Corporation (HDC) plans to build an apartment complex at Todd Street.

Maharaj is leader of the legal team representing the NGOs.

The appeal will be filed on July 15.

Maharaj was confident the appeal would be successful.

“This battle, if I may call it that, which has been embarked upon, is not only a battle for you. It is a battle for Trinidad and Tobago, because after this matter is finally determined, there will be a precedent that in respect of the change of use of land, there has to be a procedure, and rights and legitimate expectations which have accrued to individuals and groups have to be respected.”

He said the argument of the NGOs is firmly grounded in the Judicial Review Act of 2000, which was implemented during his tenure as AG.

“That Judicial Review Act is the law of TT. No one in TT is above the law, not even the Cabinet.”

While the Cabinet has powers under Section 75 of the Constitution to make government policy, Maharaj said that power "is subject to the laws of TT. Under the laws of TT, the Town and Country Planning Division (TCP) determines what use is to be put to land.”

On July 4, Justice Jacqueline Wilson held that the Cabinet’s decision to transfer the land to the HDC fell within the scope of its constitutional power.

In 2022, the Krishna Mandir, the Shri Krishna Seva Trust Foundation, Stri Sevak Sabha Inc and the Concerned Citizens for a Better San Fernando challenged the Cabinet’s decision on September 8, 2022, to transfer a hectare of land at Todd Street to the HDC to build a multi-family housing development.

In January 2023, the judge permitted the groups to advance their claim that the Cabinet acted illegally and unreasonably when it changed the designation of the ten-hectare parcel of land from institutional to residential and transferred the land to the HDC to build approximately 72 apartment units.

Maharaj said a change of use requires an application to TCP, which falls under the Planning and Development Ministry.

The TCP, he continued, would make a site visit as part of its exercise in considering such applications.

Maharaj said there was evidence before the court, in the form of letters from the Education Ministry and TCP, that the only use for the land in question is a technical education centre and a primary school in what is considered a school zone.

He said that was based on a 1951 development plan for the land, which had not been altered to date.

Maharaj said it was also clear that neither the Cabinet nor any body it had appointed had any consultations with Todd Street residents or the NGOs about building houses on the land.

“On that basis, I am totally confident. I have been in this law for over 50 years. I know when you have a good case and when you have a bad case. I know when you have a case that is new law and you do not know how the judge will decide.

“We have a case in which the principles of law have already been decided.”

But he added that sometimes judges may take different views of the law.

Maharaj believed the judge made “errors of law” in this case.

Repeating his confidence that the appeal would be successful, Maharaj outlined other legal options available to the NGOs.

“We are entitled to challenge the Cabinet decision right up to the Privy Council. We will go to the Court of Appeal and I am confident the Court of Appeal will follow the law.”

If that did not happen, “We will go to the Privy Council.”

Maharaj added that he remained committed to seeing the legal battle out to its conclusion.

“We intend to fight this battle at every stage.”

The act, Maharaj continued, provides an option for a stay of Justice Wilson’s decision to be obtained from the Court of Appeal.

“The order is put on hold until the Court of Appeal decides the matter.

“We can also have a second bite of the cherry in challenging the decision, the process at the TCPD.”

Maharaj repeated that success at the Court of Appeal negated any of the other steps he mentioned.

He also said the appellants had a reasonable expectation for compensation.

Pundit Rudranath Maharaj of the Krishna Mandir said some of segments of the media had portrayed the matter as a Hindu- or opposition-driven exercise.

He added that neither was true.

“I am not politically aligned at all.”

The pundit lamented the level of lawlessness in TT and said such lawlessness must never come from “the highest echelons of the State.”