Court upholds appointments of chairpersons of Police Service Commission, Integrity Commission

Finding that the President had meaningfully consulted the Leader of the Opposition, acting Chief Justice Roxane George SC has affirmed the appointments of the Chairpersons of both the Police Service Commission and the Integrity Commission.

In her two-part ruling, delivered yesterday afternoon, Justice George also validated the appointment of the members of the Integrity Commission but while upholding Patrick Findlay’s appointment as Chairman of the Police Service Commission, she was keen to distinguish it from that of the appointment of the body itself, which she said was not lawfully reconstituted.

On the latter point, Justice George found that President Irfaan Ali had sufficiently discharged his duty to meaningfully consult with Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton but added that in the absence of a Chairman of the Public Service Commission, which was integral to the process of consultation needed for the reconstitution of the Police Service Commission, that body was not legally set up.