Court: Govt must provide housing staff

Justice Judith Jones, presiding in the San Fernando High Court, yesterday ruled that Rowley had failed to provide Sharma with the statistics of applicants by racial origin, who had been granted housing units.

The judge granted a declaration that Rowley acted illegally by violating Section 15 of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Jones further ordered that Rowley provide the relevant statistics and information as requested by Sharma.

Rowley, represented by State attorneys Mitra Bhimsingh and Grace Jankey, was ordered to pay Sharma’s legal costs.

The ruling yesterday was based on a lawsuit Sharma filed against Rowley when the Housing Minister failed to provide the statistics.

Justice Ian Benjamin granted Sharma leave to seek judicial review of Rowley’s failure to accede to his request.

In an affidavit, Sharma had stated that over the past four years he received complaints from his Fyzabad constituents and members of the Opposition United National Congress, about their unsucessful applications to the Ministry of Housing for housing units.

Sharma’s affidavit stated that on May 17, he submitted a written request to the Ministry of Housing for a statistical analysis according to racial origin, of housing, apartment and land applicants.

Sharma stated that when he did not receive a reply, attorney Anand Ramlogan of Freedom House Chambers wrote a letter to the ministry inquiring about the status of his application.

Ramlogan filed the lawsuit when no information was forthcoming from the Housing Ministry.

Sharma stated in his lawsuit, in which he named Rowley as the defendant, that he made the request because he wanted to scrutinise and examine the statistics "with a view to determining its accuracy and see if there was any evidence of racial discrimination/ imbalance."