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A High Court judge has stayed proceedings in a constitutional challenge against the Emergency Powers Regulations, 2025, pending a ruling from the Privy Council on a related case.

Delivering his decision on October 16, Justice Frank Seepersad said that while he found it “inherently inconsistent and wholly unnecessary” for police officers to share powers with magistrates to extend detention periods beyond 48 hours, his hands were tied by an existing Court of Appeal decision upholding the constitutionality of a similar provision.

“Suffice it to say, in as much as the regulation recognises that a magistrate can also make an order of longer detention, I find it inherently inconsistent and wholly unnecessary that that power was also extended to the police, especially in a society where the public does not repose much trust and confidence in the police,” Seepersad said. “However, the Court of Appeal has already expressed a view on the constitutionality of an equivalent provision.”