A Supreme Court full panel has ruled that Deanroy Bernard, the former education ministry permanent secretary who was unceremoniously pulled from that post and reassigned to the Ministry of Finance as director general, be “reassigned to a permanent secretary position within three months”.

The court in its judgment handed down on Wednesday morning said the 2019 reassignment of Bernard was unconstitutional.

It said it found that Bernard “could be re-assigned based on Section 126 of the Constitution”. However, it said the section must be read in conjunction with the interpretation section of the Constitution. As such it said it found that “the newly created position of director general has no job description and is not commensurate with the position of permanent secretary”.

The court said as such it found “that the claimant having been reassigned from the position of permanent secretary to the position of director general was unconstitutional”.

It however made no orders regarding several other declarations that Bernard had sought.

– Alicia Dunkley-Willis