THE High Court has ordered Commissioner of Police Erla Harewood-Christopher to decide on 33 applications for firearm user’s licences (FUL) by May 16.

Harewood-Christopher was declared to have breached her statutory duty as commissioner under section 17 of the Firearms Act to either grant or refuse permits to those applicants who satisfied the two-phase process and had provisional licences and certificates of competence.

In making the order, Justice Nadia Kangaloo further declared there was a delay by the commissioner in deciding on the 33 applications and her failure, neglect and continuous delay to perform her duty was unreasonable and in conflict with the policy set out by the legislation, unlawful and illegal.

The commissioner was ordered to pay the 33 applicants’ costs of their judicial review and leave applications.

Attorneys Jagdeo Singh, Karina Singh, Leon Kalicharan and Vashisht Seepersad filed the 33 claims in August 2023. The applicants complained of the delay by the commissioner in deciding on their FUL applications.

Attorneys for the commissioner sought to attribute the delay to the covid19 pandemic, an audit on the firearms section of the police service, and the 50,000 applications to be processed.

However, Kangaloo did not consider those reasonable reasons, taking into account the costs associated with applying for a provisional licence and certificate of competence, the inconvenience and the length of delay – three years – since the applications were made.

Kangaloo also permitted 17 others to challenge the commissioner's delay in deciding on their FUL applications. They are seeking the same declarations as the previous 33 applicants. In consolidating their claims, she adjourned their matter to March 21. The 50 cases came up for hearing before the judge on January 18. She granted the order for the commissioner to decide on the 33 applications while also granting leave to the 17 other applications.

In November, another High Court judge declared the commissioner’s continuing failure to decide a firearm dealer’s applications to import ammunition was unlawful, based on unreasonable and inordinate delay.

In the lawsuit before Kangaloo, the group of 33 said they applied for their FULs after receiving their provisional firearms licences, completing their training and submitting their certificates of competence. In some cases, the applicants were asking for a renewal of permits. The delay they complained of ranged between 22 and 25 months.

Their main complaint was that Harewood-Christopher “omitted, failed, neglected and refused to decide on their FULs despite their having satisfied all the requirements of the law and policy on the granting of firearm licences.”

One, a doubles vendor, said she enquired several times about her application, and not having been told there was an issue to hinder her from getting it, she believed there was no good reason why the commissioner had not made a decision.

“I am a doubles vendor and due to the high crime rate, I am more susceptible to being a vi