In an oral decision at the Hall of Justice, Port-of-Spain, yesterday, Appellate Judges Peter Jamadar, Gregory Smith and Judith Jones dismissed two injunctions granted by Justice Frank Seepersad to former agriculture minister Devant Maharaj last month.
Jamadar, who delivered the ruling, said while Seepersad properly granted Maharaj leave to pursue his substantive case against the tax, the injunctions were not “just or proportional” considering the facts of the case. The substantive lawsuit will come up for trial before Seepersad in September as the court ruled that there is no need to assign the case to another judge.
The decision on the injunctions was largely based on procedural errors in filing the applications and assurances from the Commissioner of Valuations that participation in the procedure is entirely voluntary and will not attract sanctions or penalties for non compliance.
As part of the ruling, the court ordered that the procedure could only be resumed after the Commissioner of Valuations, whose office is in charge of the data collection drive, publishes notices in all three daily newspapers indicating the resumption and voluntary nature of submitting the forms. The notices are to be published one day a week for three consecutive weeks, with the procedure officially resuming after the first notice is published.
Maharaj’s lawyer, Anand Ramlogan, SC, asked the court to extend the order to include notices on two television stations, but the court said the newspaper notices would suffice.
Jamadar also instructed the commissioner’s lawyers to place notices at the offices of the Valuation Division to inform members of the public who come to submit their forms and corresponding documents.
In the first injunction granted to Maharaj on May 19 on the eve of the original deadline for submission of forms, Jamadar said Maharaj failed to inform the State before filing the application. However, he noted that the State was able to make submissions on the ex parte injunction after they learned of it from media reports.
“This application was flawed from inception and should not have been entertained,” he said, as he noted that Maharaj’s attorneys sought the injunction hours before the State’s deadline for response to the pre-action protocol letter was due to expire.
“The trial judge did not treat with this issue and there was no good reason to justify the lack of notice,” Jamadar added.
In the second injunction granted upon expiration of the first last week, while the appeal was still pending, Jamadar said Seepersad’s decision was affected as the application was done orally and without the State being allowed to tender witness statements explaining its position.
“The court deprived itself of important considerations,” he said.
Jamadar said while Maharaj’s application was based on claims that Government’s data collection drive is mandatory and there would be penalties for failing to comply, the commissioner, in his evidence before the appeal panel, claimed the entire process was voluntary.
Finance Minister Colm Imbert had made similar statements about the voluntary nature of the process after he received legal advice on the first injunction.
Jamadar, who during the hearing of the appeal on Tuesday asked why Imbert had sent out press releases on the issue, said the collection of the forms is within the sole purview of the commissioner and his office should make all announcements concerning it.
Following the decision, Maharaj told reporters he still felt vindicated as the court ruled that the submissions of the forms was voluntary and not mandatory as first suggested by Imbert.
“In particular, I am pleased with the last part of the judgment where the court indicated that this property tax form was totally and entirely voluntary in nature and contrary to the position adopted by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, which appeared to project the image that this was a compulsory form to be submitted by a particular deadline,” he said.
Maharaj also renewed his call to citizens to refrain from submitting the forms.
“Exercise the voluntary option not to submit it,” he said.
The commissioner was represented by Russell Martineau, SC, Deborah Peake, SC, and Ravi Heffes-Doon, while the Office of the Attorney General was represented by Fyard Hosein, SC and Rishi Dass. Alvin Pariagsingh and Kent Samlal appeared alongside Ramlogan for Maharaj.
