A high court judge Thursday awarded a former prison officer nearly half a million dollars in a landmark discrimination case. Khimrajh Bissessar, 67, told reporters he was elated at the outcome.
Bissessar is looking forward to using the money for medical bill. He retired from the service in 2002 at the rank of superintendent and suffered a stroke last year. He worked for the prison service for 32 years.
The award itself is $205,000. But since the matter took 10 years in the courts, Justice Sebastien Ventour also ordered interest be paid at 12 per cent per annum and costs.
On July 16, 2004, Justice Maureen Rajnauth-Lee made a ruling in favour of Bissessar in the discrimination matter.
She wrote in her judgment that he suffered discrimination, noting that seven of Bissessar's juniors were promoted ahead of him.
In making his ruling Thursday Justice Ventour pointed out that Bissessar reached Prisons Supervisor in the first ten years in the service but then remained in the same position for the following 13 years, during which time several of his juniors whom he had trained, were promoted ahead of him.
Bissessar's complaints to the Commissioner of Prisons and to the Public Service Commission did not get him anywhere so in frustration he hired attorney Anand Ramlogan who filed a constitutional motion against the Attorney General, claiming discrimination by the prisons administration.
Ventour said, “Given all these complaints of discrimination, the applicant testified that he was ‘demoralised and depressed during the latter part of my career, because I had to salute and take orders from men I trained that were junior to me.”
Ventour said the finding of facts by Justice Rajnauth-Lee provided "a chilling reminder" of the acts of discrimination that Bissessar suffered over a prolonged period.
Ventour observed that the discrimination was a matter of concern since there was no finding of wrongdoing by Bissessar to justify the unfair treatment meted out to him.
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