Court rejects Isouve’s demotion

The National National

THE National Court has quashed a decision by former police commissioner Gari Baki to demote ACP Victor Isouve.
Justice Les Gavara-Nanu ruled in favour of Isouve and ordered the allegations made against him to be revoked and corrected and his entitlements be fully paid.
Having considered Isouve’s age and contract of employment, the court did not order his reinstatement but ordered his entitlements to be paid at the ACP’s rate.
Gavara-Nanu said Isouve was wrongly charged under the Police Force Act which no longer existed as it had been amended and the new act was the Police Act 1998.
He ruled that his demotion was also unlawful as it was not done following proper process.
Isouve signed a three-year contract as the ACP in charge of crimes division which started on April 19, 2016 and was to end on April 19, this year.
On March 21 last year, Isouve sanctioned a special investigation task force team to conduct investigation into certain allegations against ACP Sylvester Kalaut who was in charge of human resource division, with other police officers plus some officers from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Immigration.
On March 23, Baki directed Isouve to disband the task force team. He was then issued a suspension notice from Baki and DCP operations Jim Andrews.
He was charged with 13 disciplinary charges, including insubordination.
His lawyer Greg Konjib, principal at Konjib and Associates Lawyers, filed an application for leave to review Baki’s decision and the court granted him leave on April 10 last year.
Konjib later filed an application to stay his suspension but court dismissed his application on Sept 13 last year.
On Aug 1, last year, Isouve was demoted to Chief Supt without notice.
Konjib made an application to the court and leave was granted on Nov 5 last year for a judicial review of Baki’s decision to demote him.
Since Isouve’s age has reached the compulsory retirement age and his contract has ended in April, he was considered retired.
The court gave the following orders:

  • The decision of the first defendant made on Aug 1, 2018 to demote the plaintiff to Chief Supt from his substantive rank of
    ACP is quashed;
  • the court having been told that the plaintiff having reached the compulsory retiring age has been retired, the plaintiff’s retirement payout be calculated on ACP;
  • if the plaintiff has already been paid out as a Chief Supt, appropriate adjustments must be made forthwith so that he is properly paid his retirement entitlements as an ACP. This should also be done on his other entitlements such as pensions and superannuation benefits, and any other benefits;
  • the defendants are to make immediate steps to remove and correct the records of convictions against the plaintiff for disciplinary offences and for which the plaintiff had been charged and found guilty of, from all his Police record; and
  • The defendant will pay the plaintiff’s costs of and incidental to this proceeding which if not agreed are to be taxed.
  • souve told The National outside court that he was satisfied with the court’s decision as justice had been served after one year and four months.

“We’ve exhausted everything we could do and we finally went to court,” Isouve said.
“There are no facts to the allegations against me and my demotion was unlawful. You have to have facts before you go to court. I want this to be a lesson to other aspiring police officers who are climbing up the police hierarchy to always abide by the rule of law.
“The rule of law must prevail and such unlawful actions must not be entertained in the police force. I thank my family, my fellow officers, my prayer warriors and all my supporters as we have finally won.”