The Public Service Association has suffered defeat in the High Court in Port of Spain as a judgehas ruled against the expulsion of Oral Saunders as a member of the association last year. As a result of him being expelled, Saunders’ name was removed from the PSA’s voters’ list, preventing him from voting in the association’s elections later this month. However, he is now able to do so, with the ruling of Justice Ronnie Boodoosingh. Saunders had challenged the June 4 expulsion, seeking various reliefs, including an injunction which would have allowed him to vote in the election despite him not being listed as a member of the association. In his 11-page ruling yesterday, Boodoosingh said the granting of the injunction was not necessary as Saunders’s expulsion was null and void. He was expelled from the association on allegations of misconduct contrary to the constitution of the PSA. Saunders was informed of his expulsion through a letter from PSA general secretary Nixon Callender on June 6, last year, after he was found guilty by a special tribunal of the general council. The allegation was: “That on the 13th day of July 2010, in violation of the constitution you purported to be empowered as though you were duly directed by the president and/or general council to the media and did appear on national television purporting to be such.” Justice Boodoosingh said the wording of the charge made no sense. “They require the reader to use mental gymnastics and suppositions and to fill gaps to make sense of it. Such a defectively drafted charge could not in my view provide a platform for disciplinary action to be taken against someone.” Boodoosingh further pointed out that, according to the affidavit of PSA president Watson Duke, the association found that as an ordinary member, Saunders had held a media briefing in which there was “an attack on the leadership, administration, integrity and stability of the PSA”. “There is no suggestion that the claimant (Saunders) or anyone was holding themselves out as speaking for the association. It was clearly a call for problems they perceived were occurring in the PSA to be addressed,” said Boodoosingh. The PSA was also ordered to pay Saunders the sum of $14,000 in legal costs, while a claim also brought against Callender by Saunders was dismissed.
Posted on: Tue, 05 Nov 2013 18:32:33 +0000