Country owes Dumas a debt of gratitude

He mounted a successful legal challenge which has expanded access to citizens to challenge perceived violations of non-human rights provisions of the Constitution.

“That he had to pursue the case, at his own expense I presume, as far as the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London is unfortunate,” Mahabir-Wyatt said in a media release yesterday. “If we recognised the Caribbean Court of Appeal, he could have done it in Port-of-Spain but that access was denied to him.

“For a citizen, in the public interest, to ask for a legal interpretation of a clause in the Constitution is surely the most fundamental of human rights in a country that respects the rule of law based on the principles of democracy. Justices Peter Jamadar, Nolan Bureaux, and Geoffrey Smith certainly thought so when the matter came before them,” Mahabir-Wyatt said.

She hailed the Privy Council’s ruling on Monday as a historic one with repercussions for the entire Commonwealth to consider as it establishes a citizen’s right to seek an interpretation of the Constitution of the country in which a citizen lives. President of the Law Association Douglas Mendes also hailed the ruling, saying it affirmed “in no uncertain terms” the role of the Supreme Court as guardian of the Constitution and protector of the rule of law.

Dumas had challenged the appointment of Dr James Armstrong and Romar Achat-Saney to the Police Service Commission (PSC) by the President, in 2013.

His challenge can now be decided by the local court. The Law Lords in their ruling said the case raised “an important question about the jurisdiction of the High Court to hear an application by a citizen for the Court to interpret a provision of the Constitution.” The appellate court and the Privy Council had found that there was no established tradition in Trinidad and Tobago which prevented a citizen with a legitimate interest in upholding the Constitution and the rule of law. In their ruling, the British Law Lords also held that the question raised by Dumas was one for the court to decide.