Alleyne and Others v Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Judgment Date | 21 January 2015 |
| Date | 21 January 2015 |
| Court | Privy Council |
Privy Council
Before Baroness Hale of Richmond, Lord Wilson, Lord Reed, Lord Toulson and Sir Patrick Coghlin
The failure of a state to obey court orders brought the system of justice itself into disrepute, for which a specific award of compensation might be appropriate. The Privy Council so held in allowing an appeal by the applicants, Oswald Alleyne and 152 other municipal police officers, against the de cision of the Court of Appeal of Trinidad and Tobago (Justices of Appeal Mendonca, Jamadar and Bereaux) on December 20, 2011, which overturned in part Mrs Justice Tiwari-Reddy's decision on November 9, 2005, to order the Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago to pay compensation to the applicants for the contravention of their constitutional rights.
Mr Peter Knox, QC, Mr Ramesh MaharaJ, SC (of the Trinidad and Tobago Bar) and Mr Robert Strang for the claimants; Mr Alan Newman, QC and Mr Anand Beharrylal (of the Trinidad and Tobago Bar) for the state.
LORD TOULSON, giving the judgment of the Board, said that the applicants complained that for over a decade they had unjustifiably been treated less favourably than regular police officers particularly in terms of remuneration.
The national police service was governed by the Police Service Act 2006, the Police Service Regulations and the Police Service Commission Regulations, which provided a comprehensive code for the organisation and administration of the police service. Municipal police services were governed by the Mu nicipal Corporations Act 1990. Section 60 provided that the Statutory Authorities' Service Commission "may" make Regulations providing for the classification of officers in a Municipal Police Service, including qualifications, duties and remuneration, and that until such Regulations were made, Regu lations made under the Police Service Act, in so far as the Commission deemed them applicable, should apply mutatis mutandis.
At the time of the hearing of the appeal, the commission had neither made any regulations under section 60 nor deemed any part of the Police Service Regulations to be applicable to municipal officers. They remained in a regulatory limbo.
The Police Service Regulations also contained provisions for the recognition of a police service association with rights of consultation over the remuneration of regular officers and for a dispute resolution scheme.
For...
To continue reading
Request your trial