(Trinidad Guardian) Police Commissioner Erla Harewood-Christopher has been ordered to reopen the screening process for prospective officers to include those who may have been previously excluded due to their height.
High Court Judge Robin Mohammed made the order yesterday, as he upheld a lawsuit from Renaldo Marajh, of Williamsville, who was previously excluded from recruitment for failing to meet the T&T Police Service’s (TTPS) minimum height requirement.
In the lawsuit, Marajh’s lawyers, led by Anand Ramlogan, SC, claimed that the requirement that male candidates be a minimum of 167 centimetres in height, found in a Police Service Regulation implemented in 2007, was unconstitutional.
They claimed it was discriminatory to prospective candidates of certain racial groups, who are generally shorter in stature than others. They also complained it was discriminatory based on gender, as female candidates were required to be a minimum of 150 centimetres.
In his judgment, Justice Mohammed agreed.
“The effect of the regulation is discriminatory, as it imposes unequal treatment to similarly circumstanced individuals seeking to be recruited by the TTPS simply on the basis of their height and gender,” Justice Mohammed said.
“The defendant has failed to advance any justification for the TTPS’ imposition of a height requirement or a gender specific height distinction as a pre-condition for recruitment into the Police Service,” he added.
As part of the lawsuit, Justice Mohammed had to consider whether the regulation was immune from judicial oversight based on the constitutional saving clause, which prevents constitutional challenges to legislation not repealed when the 1976 Constitution was passed by Parliament as this country became a republic.
He stated that while a height requirement was introduced in 1971, the 2007 regulation was not saved, as it made fundamental changes to the previous position.
Justice Mohammed ruled that Marajh’s constitutional rights to equality before the law and equality of treatment by a public authority had been breached.
As part of his judgment, Justice Mohammed ordered $175,000 in compensation for the distress and inconvenience Marajh suffered. He also ordered $225,000 in vindicatory damages and ordered the State to pay his legal costs for pursuing the case.
Marajh, an avid kickboxer, filed the case in 2021 after he was excluded from a recruitment process in October 2020 because he is 160 centimetres tall.
“I am a healthy, fit and young man who would like to contribute to and serve my country, yet I am disqualified from doing so on account of my height,” Marajh said in his affidavit attached to the case.
“This is particularly troubling in a multi-racial society such as ours, as it will have a disproportionate impact on persons who, due to their ethnic origin, are of medium built,” he added.