Thu | Mar 28, 2024

Government lawyer granted leave to challenge promotion dispute

Published:Friday | April 29, 2022 | 3:17 PM
Austin, who is employed in the Attorney General’s Chambers, is contending that the decision taken in 2020 not to appoint him to the post of assistant attorney general is unlawful and should be quashed.

Government lawyer Dale Austin was today granted leave to go to the Judicial Review Court in a bid to quash the decision of the Public Service Commission and the Solicitor General not to promote him.

Austin, who is employed in the Attorney General's Chambers, is contending that the decision taken in 2020 not to appoint him to the post of assistant attorney general is unlawful and should be quashed.

He contends that for the last 10 years he has not been appointed to a higher post. 

Austin claims that the respondents breached his rights under the Constitution and the Public Service Regulations as well as various orders.

A hearing was convened by the respondents in 2020 to determine whether Austin should be promoted.

But he argued that the hearing was unfair and unlawful as the parties were afflicted by bias and he was not given an opportunity to be heard before the decision was made not to promote him.

He further contends that the respondents used an unlawful process to consider his promotion that was not stipulated in the Public Service Regulations.

Attorney-at-law Hugh Wildman, who is representing Austin, argued that the process of using the Solicitor General to do the evaluation by virtue of an order from the Public Service Commission authorising the Solicitor General to do the evaluation was unlawful because the order was not gazetted.

The first hearing has been for set June 28 in the Supreme Court.

Supreme Court judge Justice Andrea Pettigrew-Collins, who granted leave, has adjourned the matter to next week Friday to determine legal costs for Austin.

Queen's Counsel Allan Wood and Queen's Counsel Garth McBean, who are representing the respondents, opposed the application.

- Barbara Gayle

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