By Prior Beharry
THE appointment of Gary Griffith to act as Police Commissioner of Trinidad and Tobago is void and unconstitutional.
This was the ruling by Justice Nadia Kangaloo in a 58-page judgment on Thursday.
She said that the Police Service Commission (PolSC) was the body entrusted under the Constitution to appoint a commissioner of police and also a deputy police commissioner.
Justice Kangaloo said Section 123(2-5) of the Constitution was unambiguous in the appointment, whether substantive or acting, to the post of commissioner of police. Using this constitutional provision, she said the PolSC must send to the President a list of nominees to act in the post, then the President shall issue notification of every nomination to Parliament for negative resolution. And whoever is appointed to act may only be appointed after negative resolution of Parliament.
“The legislation is not obscure or ambiguous,” the judge stated.
She also found that subsidiary legislation made in the form of the 2009 and 2021 Orders regarding the acting appointment of a commissioner of police were void and unconstitutional, as they were not in concomity with the Constitution.
The PolSC’s lead attorney Russell Martineau SC said this ruling means that the appointment of McDonald Jacob to act as commissioner of police has also been “thrown in the bamboo”.
Ravi Balgobin Maharaj filed a fixed date claim form seeking the court’s interpretation that the appointment of Griffith to act as commissioner of police after his substantive appointment ended on August 17 was contrary to law. Maharaj’s lead attorney, Anand Ramlogan SC, said what the court’s ruling means is that as of midnight tonight for the first time in its history this country will be without a commissioner of police.
The judge, who is celebrating her eighth year on the High Court bench today, began her judgment with a quotation from King Austin asking who will guard the guards. She said she has answered the question in this manner “Who will guard the guards? The people through their elected representatives.”
