High Court Judge Frank Seep­er­sad has stayed pro­ceed­ings in a con­sti­tu­tion­al chal­lenge brought by a south busi­ness­man, who is su­ing the State over the pow­ers grant­ed to po­lice of­fi­cers dur­ing the on­go­ing State of Emer­gency (SoE).

The de­ci­sion, de­liv­ered dur­ing a vir­tu­al hear­ing yes­ter­day, paus­es the case pend­ing the out­come of a sim­i­lar mat­ter now be­fore the Privy Coun­cil.

Judge Seep­er­sad said his hands were tied by an ex­ist­ing Court of Ap­peal rul­ing which up­held the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of a sim­i­lar reg­u­la­tion. This was de­spite his own view that it was “in­con­sis­tent and un­nec­es­sary” for po­lice of­fi­cers to share with mag­is­trates the pow­er to ex­tend de­ten­tion be­yond 48 hours.