Ranjan Rampersad v Commissioner of Police & Police Service Commission
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Judge | LORD DYSON |
| Judgment Date | 09 August 2011 |
| Neutral Citation | [2011] UKPC 25 |
| Date | 09 August 2011 |
| Docket Number | Appeal No 0042 of 2010 |
| Court | Privy Council |
[2011] UKPC 25
Privy Council
Lord Phillips
Lord Brown
Lord Mance
Lord Kerr
Lord Dyson
Appellant
Sir Fenton Ramsahoye SC
Elton Prescott SC
Tom Richards
Anthony Bullock
Jodie Blackstock
Sanjeev Datadin
Cindy Bhagwandeen
(Instructed by Bankside Commercial Solicitors)
Respondent
Peter Knox QC
Miss Carol
Hernandez
Ms Nadine Nabie
(Instructed by Charles Russell LLP)
The issues raised on this appeal are similar to those raised in Ganga and others v Commissioner of Police and Police Service Commission [2011] UKPC 28. This judgment should be read with the Board's judgment on the appeal in that case, where the relevant statutory and other material is set out and reviewed.
The appellant joined the Police Force of Trinidad and Tobago on 2 September 1985 as a police constable. He was appointed acting corporal on 29 December 1997. Thus at the time with which these proceedings are concerned, he was an officer in the Second Division of the Police Force. All officers in the Second Division were assessed for promotion by the Commissioner of Police ("the Commissioner") in November 2005. By a letter dated 11 November 2005, the Commissioner informed the appellant that he had been omitted from the list of persons "selected for promotion to the rank of Corporal as officers selected received a higher score". He had been given a total of 71 marks out of a possible 85 marks in the points-based system which is described in detail in the Board's judgment at paras 19 to 21 of its judgment in Ganga. He was informed that he could make representations to the Police Service Commission ("the Commission").
The appellant made his representations by letter dated 25 November 2005. By Departmental Order No 142 dated 26 May 2006, the Commission announced its approval of more than 200 officers to the rank of police corporal, but the appellant was not one of them.
On 22 August 2006, the appellant started judicial review proceedings challenging the lawfulness of the decision not to include him on the list for promotion. Like the appellants in Ganga, he claimed that the Commissioner had acted unlawfully, inter alia, in devising a scheme (the points-based system) which was unfair, illegal and unreasonable. Unlike the appellants in Ganga, he also claimed that the Commission had acted unlawfully. But the lawfulness of the points-based system was at the heart of the proceedings.
On 12 April 2007, before the date for trial, the Commission reconsidered the appellant's application for promotion and revised his performance appraisal from "very good" to "outstanding". This meant that he received total marks of 76 which entitled him to be promoted to the rank of corporal with retrospective effect from 11 May 2006. The reason for the alteration was that his previous performance appraisal had covered...
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