The coun­try’s high­est ap­pel­late court has pro­vid­ed guid­ance on the in­ter­pre­ta­tion of the statu­to­ry cri­te­ria for ap­point­ing the chair­man of the Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Board of T&T (NIBTT).

The Unit­ed King­dom-based Privy Coun­cil de­liv­ered the rul­ing yes­ter­day in dis­miss­ing an ap­peal brought by po­lit­i­cal and so­cial ac­tivist Ravi Bal­go­b­in Ma­haraj, who had chal­lenged the dis­missal of his ju­di­cial re­view claim over the ap­point­ment.

How­ev­er, the five-mem­ber pan­el was di­vid­ed on the in­ter­pre­ta­tion of the rel­e­vant leg­is­la­tion, with a three–two ma­jor­i­ty up­hold­ing the de­ci­sions of the lo­cal courts and two Law Lords is­su­ing a dis­sent­ing judg­ment.