Derek Achong

At­tor­neys rep­re­sent­ing em­bat­tled Tu­na­puna Hin­du School prin­ci­pal Si­ta Ga­jadars­ingh-Nan­ga yes­ter­day said that if grant­ed leave for ju­di­cial re­view, she would be will­ing to stay at the school. The is­sue of Ga­jadars­ingh-Nan­ga's con­tin­ued pres­ence at the school was raised by Jus­tice An­dre Des Vi­gnes who is pre­sid­ing over her mat­ter in the Port-of-Spain High Court. Through her ap­pli­ca­tion, Ga­jadars­ingh-Nan­ga is seek­ing to have a de­ci­sion by the Teach­ing Ser­vice Com­mis­sion (TSC) in Feb­ru­ary to have her trans­ferred to the Bon Air Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School quashed. Des Vi­gnes said: "She was fever­ish­ly seek­ing to get out of that school and now she is will­ing to stay? ajadars­ingh-Nan­ga said she was treat­ed shab­bi­ly and dis­re­spect­ed at the school. She said her life was threat­ened!" Des Vi­gnes ex­claimed. Des Vi­gnes ques­tioned the re­lief sought by her at­tor­ney Neil Bis­nath not­ing her com­plaints about her treat­ment at the school in the past.

Bis­nath ad­mit­ted that if the ap­pli­ac­tion was grant­ed by Jus­tice Des Vi­gnes, Ga­jadars­ingh-Nan­ga would have to stay as prin­ci­pal of the school un­til the sub­stan­tive mat­ter was de­ter­mined. As the mat­ter was be­ing ar­gued in court, Ga­jadars­ingh-Nan­ga's hus­band Ravi, who is an at­tor­ney, sat pa­tient­ly out­side. "The ev­i­dence in the case shows that there is high dra­ma when Ga­jadars­ingh-Nan­ga does any­thing at Tu­na­puna Hin­du School," Des Vi­gnes said. While mak­ing sub­mis­sions yes­ter­day, Bis­nath claimed that the com­mis­sion breached prin­ci­ples of nat­ur­al jus­tice in trans­fer­ring her. He fur­ther sub­mit­ted that the de­ci­sion was bi­ased and un­fair con­sid­er­ing that she was not giv­en a suf­fi­cient op­por­tu­ni­ty to make rep­re­sen­ta­tions to the com­mis­sion to ap­peal the de­ci­sion. As part of her claim, Ga­jadars­ingh-Nan­ga is seek­ing an or­der of the court that the com­mis­sion's de­ci­sion was ir­re­spon­si­ble and ir­reg­u­lar. Bis­nath claimed that her ap­pli­ca­tion for ju­di­cial re­view was not friv­o­lous and had mer­it.

Ga­jadars­ingh-Nan­ga first ap­plied for a trans­fer on Ju­ly 17, last year, af­ter a spat with the Par­ent/Teacher As­so­ci­a­tion and the Sanatan Dhar­ma Ma­ha Sab­ha over al­le­ga­tions of racism and mis­con­duct at the Tu­na­puna school. At a pre­vi­ous hear­ing last month, Des Vi­gnes grant­ed an in­ter­im or­der which stayed the TSC's de­ci­sion over Ga­jadars­ingh-Nan­ga's trans­fer. Af­ter sev­er­al months of con­flict last year, Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Tim Gopeesingh in­ter­vened. In No­vem­ber, Gopeesingh bro­kered a deal which saw Ga­jadars­ingh-Nan­ga re­turn to the post at the school un­til she was grant­ed the trans­fer in Feb­ru­ary. She, how­ev­er, de­clined to make the move. Se­nior Coun­sel Rus­sell Mar­tineau, who is ap­pear­ing on the com­mis­sion's be­half, coun­tered Bis­nath's sub­mis­sions say­ing that the reg­u­la­tions which gov­ern the TSC state that the prin­ci­pal should take up the po­si­tion at Bon Air even while the trans­fer was be­ing chal­lenged.

Mar­tineau said that while the mat­ter was be­ing de­cid­ed, the stu­dents of the Bon Air school would be suf­fer­ing with­out a prin­ci­pal. If Ga­jadars­ingh-Nan­ga was to re­turn to the Tu­na­puna Hin­du Pri­ma­ry School there would be fur­ther chaos, Mar­tineau sub­mit­ted. "Po­lice and fire ser­vices were sum­moned to the school last year. Is that what we want for our ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem? Ga­jadars­ingh-Nan­ga should stay there for what? Is that go­ing to help pro­duce a just re­sult?" Mar­tineau asked. He said that the TSC is an in­de­pen­dent body which was free from out­side in­flu­ence. "The TSC brought some sort of ra­tio­nal­i­ty in the mat­ter and now we (the TSC) are be­fore the courts," Mar­tineau said. He al­so ques­tioned Ga­jadars­ingh-Nan­ga's de­ci­sion to refuse to be trans­ferred to Bon Air on the ba­sis of dis­tance from her home. Mar­tineau said that Ga­jadars­ingh-Nan­ga had ex­pressed will­ing­ness to be trans­ferred to three oth­er schools which were all fur­ther than Bon Air. The Ma­ha Sab­ha's in­ter­est were yes­ter­day sought by at­tor­ney Jagdeo Singh, who was present in court but did not con­tribute to the sub­mis­sions. The mat­ter con­tin­ues this af­ter­noon.