Chief Justice Roxane George today dismissed a Court Challenge mounted by the Public Service Union challenges the nomination of Mr. Mohandatt Goolsarran, to sit as a Commissioner on the Public Service Commission. Mr. Goolsarran was nominated by the Public Service Senior Staff Association.

The legal action filed by the GPSU was to essentially question the decision of the Standing Committee on Appointments of the National Assembly and the National Assembly to consider nominations from the Public Service Senior Staff Association (PSSSA) for appointment to the Public Service Commission (PSC).

The Challenge by the GPSU came one day after President Irfaan Ali reconstituted the Commission with the appointment of six members, including Goolsarran.

The GPSU’s argument was that the Public Service Senior Staff Association is not a certified trade union recognised by the Trade Union Recognition Act for the purpose of representing public officers for the appointment to the PSC, and hence could not properly nominate Mr. Goolsarran for appointment to the PSC in accordance with Article 200(1)(b) of the Constitution of Guyana.

The Attorney General in his arguments contended that the Applicant has failed to establish a case of violation of the Constitution or any principle of law or any provision of any statute law.

The Attorney General further contended that Article 200(1) of the Constitution vests the power to determine the bodies to be consulted, solely with the National Assembly. Accordingly, the National Assembly by Resolution 24 of 2003, he said, decided that the PSSSA would be among the bodies to be consulted pursuant to Article 200(1).

He noted that for the past 20 years, the PSSSA has been invited to submit nominees to the Public Service Commission, which it has accordingly done, and its nominees have correspondingly been accepted, adopted by the outer Assembly, and thereafter appointed to the Public Service Commission.

After hearing oral arguments from the Attorneys-at-Law for all the parties, the Chief Justice ruled that the GPSU failed to produce any evidence to support its claims, and described the Court action as “unmeritorious, frivolous and vexatious”

The Chief Justice awarded costs in the sum of $750,000.00 each, to the Attorney General and to the Speaker of the National Assembly each.

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