Acting Chief Justice Roxane George has ordered the Permanent Secretary (PS) of the Ministry of Legal Affairs and the Attorney General’s (AG’s) Chambers, to pay any and all salaries that were withheld from former Deputy Solicitor-General Prithima Kissoon, after finding that there was no legal basis for the sanction.
In addition, Justice George has also awarded costs in the amount of $500,000 to Kissoon, who had challenged the decision to withhold her salary and applied for an order to compel payment.
Justice George made absolute an order quashing the decision, communicated by way of a letter dated May 25th, 2017, to withhold Kissoon’s salary with immediate effect, on the grounds that it was ultra vires, an abuse of power, in breach of the rules of natural justice, whimsical, null and void. The judge also made absolute an order compelling payment of Kissoon’s salary for May, 2017, and ordered that the PS immediately facilitate payment of any and all salaries that had been withheld.
