THE Strategic Services Agency (SSA) has again lost its attempt to appeal a judge’s refusal to set aside an order for leave to a retired police corporal who challenged it for finding him guilty of four disciplinary offences.

The SSA had petitioned the Privy Council after Justices of Appeal Nolan Bereaux, Judith Jones, and Mira Dean-Armorer, in September 2020, held they found no merit in the agency’s appeal, before dismissing it.

The SSA had approached the London-based appeal court for leave to challenge the Court of Appeal’s rejection of its application for leave.

In an order on Monday, Lords Hodge, Sales and Leggatt denied the SSA permission to appeal “because the application does not raise an arguable point of law.”

In May 2018, Fazal Ghany was granted leave by Justice Margaret Mohammed to challenge the SSA in a judicial review application.

She also dismissed the SSA’s application to set aside the grant of leave.

The SSA appealed this decision by the judge to grant leave, but the Court of Appeal dismissed this last year.

Now the Privy Council has refused the SSA permission to challenge the judge’s decision further, the matter now returns to Mohammed to determine the substantive issues of complaint that Ghany raised.

The SSA had found Ghany guilty of providing false and misleading information at his recruitment interview and in testimony he gave at the High Court in a civil lawsuit over compensation for injuries he suffered while with the Anti Kidnapping Unit in 2006.

In his challenge, Ghany, who was a security officer II at the SSA, is seeking several declarations, including that the findings of guilt against him were unlawful.

He also wants the court to declare that the SSA's decision to find him guilty was procedurally unfair and in breach of his right to be heard, and that the agency acted in bad faith and abused its powers in the conduct of its purported investigation of him.

Ghany applied for the position at the SSA in 2012, and while at an interview at the Ministry of National Security, he was asked about his early retirement from the police in 2011.

Ghany was injured on the job in 2006 and was found medically unfit in June 2011. He sought compensation for his injuries under the Protective Services (Compensation) Act, which was denied.

Ghany appealed and while his appeal was pending in the Privy Council, he applied for the SSA job.

Two years later, he was asked if he was still interested in the job, took a polygraph test and a medical examination and was told he had passed all the prerequisite examinations for the position. His contract with the SSA began on March 2, 2015.

During this time, Ghany was successful in his appeal in the Privy Council and his application for compensation was sent back to the compensation committee for consideration. A High Court action was filed on his behalf and the court ruled in his favour on August 4, 2017.

Four days later he was suspended from the SSA pending a disciplinary investigation. In his original claim, he said photographs of himself

Wakanda News Details

PM: Advice being sought on Privy Council ruling – Trinidad Tribune

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