Public Services Commission ignores Civil Court order on promotions

THREE lawsuits, including one for contempt of court, have failed to put right the “colossal disadvantage” suffered by five prison officers. On Thursday, Madame Justice Amrika Tiwary-Reddy seemed perplexed by the Public Services Commission’s (PSC) failure to promote the prison officers on orders from Madame Justice Mira Dean-Armorer. “Even an action for contempt of court against members of the PSC was met with apparent indifference,” Madame Justice Tiwary-Reddy commented in the San Fernando Second Civil Court. Commissioner of Prisons Leo Abraham recommended the officers for promotion, but the PSC refused to do so. Last September 30, Madame Justice Dean-Armorer ordered the PSC to promote Mookish Pulliah, Shamshudeen Mohammed, Adrian Pascal, Wilbert Lovell and Kundan Nancoo retroactively from December 2002. The PSC did not do so.

To force the PSC to act, attorney Anand Ramlogan filed proceedings in the High Court to have each member of the PSC committed to prison.
The action was withdrawn three weeks ago before Justice Carlton Best after the PSC agreed to promote the officers. But last week, Ramlogan had cause to file another judicial review lawsuit when it was discovered that the officers were promoted based on a revised list compiled by the Assistant Commissioner of Prisons. The second judicial review lawsuit revealed that the revised list promoted the officers retroactively from January 14, as opposed to the court’s order of a retroactive date of December 2002.

When the case was called on Thursday, Ramlogan told Madame Justice Tiwary-Reddy: “This act of the Commission shows contempt by avoiding meaningful compliance with Madame Justice Dean-Armorer’s judgment. It renders the court impotent. “Your ladyship’s sister judge’s order was promotion retroactive 2002. This action smacks of  a calculated plot to frustrate these officers and by extension, a contempt for the Supreme Court.” Madame Justice Tiwary-Reddy said she was indeed taken aback by what she described as “a strange and dangerous state of affairs.”