Derek Achong

Se­nior Re­porter

derek.achong@guardian.co.tt

A po­lice con­sta­ble has been giv­en the green light to pur­sue a ju­di­cial re­view over Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro’s al­leged de­lay in sign­ing a form re­quired for him to ac­cess in­jury ben­e­fits.

Late last month, High Court Judge Na­dia Kan­ga­loo grant­ed PC Deen Bip­ta leave to pur­sue his ju­di­cial re­view claim.

Jus­tice Kan­ga­loo al­so agreed to have the mat­ter treat­ed as ur­gent so it could be heard ex­pe­di­tious­ly dur­ing the Ju­di­cia­ry’s on­go­ing va­ca­tion pe­ri­od.

Bip­ta was in­jured on Au­gust 12 last year while par­tic­i­pat­ing in a rou­tine road­block ex­er­cise in the San­ta Flo­ra/Erin polic­ing dis­trict.

He suf­fered lig­a­ment dam­age and was sub­se­quent­ly placed on ex­tend­ed sick leave be­cause he was un­able to work due to his in­juries.

Bip­ta need­ed his leave to be of­fi­cial­ly clas­si­fied as sick leave so he could ap­ply for Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Board (NIB) Em­ploy­ment In­jury Ben­e­fits.

He sub­mit­ted an NIB form at the Po­lice Ad­min­is­tra­tion Build­ing in Port-of-Spain and re­turned sev­er­al times to check whether it had been signed.

Af­ter fail­ing to re­ceive a favourable re­sponse for sev­er­al months, Bip­ta, through his lawyers led by Keron Ramkhal­whan of Ju­risX Cham­bers, filed the ju­di­cial re­view pro­ceed­ings.

In court fil­ings ob­tained by Guardian Me­dia, Bip­ta’s lawyers claimed that Gue­var­ro or his agents had failed to pro­vide a clear ex­pla­na­tion or prop­er rea­son for the de­lay.

“The ap­pli­cant has not been in­formed of any law­ful ba­sis for the re­fusal and/or de­lay in sign­ing the said form,” his lawyers said.

They fur­ther claimed: “The re­spon­dent’s fail­ure, re­fusal, and/or con­tin­ued de­lay in sign­ing the said form is ir­ra­tional, pro­ce­du­ral­ly im­prop­er and un­fair in all the cir­cum­stances.”

Through the law­suit, Bip­ta is seek­ing a se­ries of de­c­la­ra­tions con­cern­ing the de­lay, which he claims has prej­u­diced his abil­i­ty to ac­cess the ben­e­fits.

“The re­spon­dent erred in law by fail­ing to act in re­la­tion to a statu­to­ry and/or pub­lic du­ty, which is re­quired to al­low the ap­pli­cant to pur­sue his statu­to­ry ben­e­fit,” his lawyers said.

Bip­ta is al­so seek­ing an or­der com­pelling Gue­var­ro to sign the form.

He is al­so rep­re­sent­ed by at­tor­neys Ra­jiv Sumair and Ami­rah Adam.

The case is sched­uled to come be­fore Jus­tice Kan­ga­loo for hear­ing this morn­ing.