YOUTH Development and National Service Minister Foster Cummings will bring a civil case against the state as a private citizen for misuse of private information, breach of confidence and breach of his constitutional right to privacy stemming from the leak of a secret Special Branch report in 2022.

At a media conference on June 8, his attorney Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, SC, said the case stemmed from the leak of the report to Opposition Senator Jayanti Lutchmedial-Ramdial, who read it out on a political platform on May 5, 2022.

Maharaj said the minister’s claim against the state was for the breach by organs and/or servants and/or agents of the state to permit/allow the private, secret and confidential information contained in the secret Special Branch note to be published by an opposition senator. He said that amounted to a breach of Cummings's constitutional right to privacy and amounted to the civil wrongs of misuse of private information and breach of confidence.

Maharaj added the publication of the note scandalised the minister, caused him reputational damage and caused him and his family distress and embarrassment.

Maharaj said while the Special Branch could gather intelligence, what was prohibited was for intelligence units to allow the secret, private and confidential information gathered to be published to the public and the media.

Maharaj said since the compilation of the report, and even since it was announced by Lutchmedial-Ramdial, the police, including the Special Branch, had not contacted Cummings to answer any of the allegations in the report, although it says investigations are ongoing.

He said Cummings was anxious to “correct the false personal information stated in the secret Special Branch note which then became part of the police records.”

He said the first option explored was to appeal to CoP Erla Harewood-Christopher to correct his records.

“The minister was advised by his lawyers that under the Freedom of Information Act, where the police (have) false personal information stored about individuals, those individuals can make an application to the CoP to correct the false and inaccurate information. If the CoP refuses, the individual can apply to the High Court for judicial review for the High Court to order the CoP correct the information. “

[caption id="attachment_1088699" align="alignnone" width="885"] Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, SC -[/caption]

Maharaj said Cummings’s legal team wrote to the CoP on May 3, 2023, asking for the records to be corrected. No response was received and a second letter was sent on July 10.

A response was received from the police service’s legal unit on August 7, asking for an extension to August 21 for the CoP to provide a response. This was agreed to on August 9. No response was received on August 21. A follow-up e-mail was sent by Cummings’s lawyers on August 21, to which the legal unit promised a response. To date, no response was received.

Maharaj said Gary Griffith was the CoP at the time of the compilation of the Special Branch note. In a r