ATTORNEY Hugh Wildman yesterday reacted with amazement that Government has gone ahead to table a Bill to strip the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) of its oversight of the transportation sector.

“It is a scandal,” said Wildman, who represents a group of taxi and bus owners and operators who have filed three lawsuits in the Supreme Court challenging policy decisions that have affected them financially.

Jamaica Urban Transit Company Limited (JUTC), the commissioner of police, the OUR, and the Transport Authority have been named in the suits filed last month.

“It has never happened anywhere in the Commonwealth where a Government, in the middle of a litigation brought by the citizen against the State, would use its parliamentary powers to defeat the civil claim of the citizen and their constitutional rights,” Wildman told the Jamaica Observer, last night.

Wildman said, however, that the Bill, if passed, will not help the State, as any amendment to the OUR Act cannot have a retroactive effect.

“I cannot believe that the Attorney General’s Chambers would give this advice to the government,” said Wildman.

The reported tabling of the Bill on Tuesday came two weeks ahead of the injunctions in the lawsuits, scheduled to be heard at the start of July.

The Rural Transit Association Limited is seeking judicial review of the decision to commandeer a section of the Mandela Highway during morning peak hours for the exclusive use of JUTC buses. The group is also challenging the authority of the JUTC to issue public transportation licences, as well as its authority to charge members fees to operate within the Kingston Metropolitan Transport Region (KMTR).

The JUTC, the commissioner of police, and the OUR have been named as respondents in the Mandela Highway suit. The Transport Authority, JUTC and the OUR are respondents in the second suit filed by the group.

The other application for judicial review has been filed by V&B Transport Limited and names the Transport Authority, JUTC and the OUR as respondents. V&B is also challenging the authority of the JUTC on the issues of granting licences and the charging of fees to operate within the KMTR.

The claimants are contending that the actions are unlawful, and said that it is the responsibility of the OUR, not the Transport Authority or any other body, to lawfully regulate the public transport sector islandwide.