High Court Judge Franklin Holder has ordered the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA) to reinstate Atlantic Fuel Inc’s (AFI) licence to import and trade fuel, on finding that the State agency acted unlawfully in cancelling the permit.
This is according to the company’s lawyer Siand Dhurjon, who informed that the ruling was handed down on Tuesday. Former Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) CEO Dr Richard Van West-Charles was the company’s director at the time.
Dhurjon said Justice Holder ruled that the State agency had usurped its powers and acted unlawfully in cancelling AFI’s fuel licence.
On May 12, 2021, AFI filed a lawsuit against the GEA and its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mahender Sharma. The suit had sought, among other things, an order of certiorari to quash the decision of the GEA to cancel the licence, and an order of mandamus commanding the GEA to take all steps necessary to reinstate the AFI import/wholesale licence on the basis that the cancellation was a nullity in law, arbitrary, ultra vires, unreasonable, irrational, unfair, an abuse of power, based upon no evidence, unconstitutional, oppressive, disproportionate, whimsical, capricious and malicious.
Dhurjon said that Sharma, in an affidavit, deposed that the licence was cancelled on the ground that AFI had committed crimes under regulation 70 of the Petroleum Regulations Act 2014 when it submitted false information to GEA.
The GEA CEO, according to the AFI lawyer, submitted that an invoice bearing an incorrect supplier to the GEA had triggered an investigation, the seizure of the company’s fuel, and the cancellation of its fuel import licence.
“However, Justice Holder found that Mr Sharma’s cancellation ‘ran afoul’ of the laws and regulations, and that Mr Sharma did not have the powers of a court to determine that AFI was guilty of breaching Regulation 70 when the summary courts were exclusively statutorily designated to do so under law,” Dhurjon has said.
He said Justice Holder held that any state agency or statutory body ought to act within the powers given by Parliament. He said, “Their role should not be usurped”. The lawyer added, “At all times, AFI strongly denied that it had any role in creating the false invoice, or any knowledge of the falsity of the invoice.”
He said the cancellation of the company’s fuel licence had effectively shut down its business of importing, trading, and reselling fuel, and had placed it and its employees on the verge of financial ruination.
Dhurjon added that AFI was forced to fire employees, move offices, and borrow money to stay afloat as a result of GEA’s illegal actions.
The lawyer noted that this is the second successful lawsuit against a state agency carried out by AFI. He recalled that on March 15, 2021, Chief Justice Roxane George, SC, had ordered that over 600,000 litres of diesel fuel which were seized and detained jointly by the GEA and the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) be released to the company. The Chief Justice had ordered that over $15M in storage fees be paid by the GRA and GEA to AFI, he said.
In an invited comment, Dhurjon remarked that justice has been served, and added that he hopes GEA “will follow its mandate according to law in future”.
