No ruling yet on Surachate’s fight against police dismissal: court

The Supreme Administrative Court did not issue a ruling as reported on a lawsuit filed by former deputy national police chief Surachate “Big Joke” Hakparn, the court office announced on Wednesday.

The Office of the Central Administrative Court told the media that the court is still deliberating on the case Surachate filed against the Royal Thai Police, demanding that it annul his dismissal order.

The former deputy police chief had filed the case on August 27, asking the court to annul his dismissal and order the police commission to reinstate him.

On November 13, Thai media rushed to report that Surachate had lost the case against the Royal Thai Police commissioner-general, the police merit protection committee and the prime minister in the capacity of police commission chairperson.

The office did not explain what may have been the cause for the wrong reports.

However, senior public prosecutor Poramate Intharachoomnum reckoned that the media may have misunderstood things when the full bench of Supreme Administrative Court judges decided not to grant an injunction suspending the dismissal order.

He explained that when a senior government official files a lawsuit against a dismissal order with the Central Administrative Court, the law requires it to be deliberated by a full bench of Supreme Administrative Court judges.

In the process, Poramate said, the court sets up a panel of five advocacy judges to review the lawsuit and present their opinions to the bench of judges.

This time, he said, the panel resolved to have an injunction issued to suspend the dismissal order, but this was voted against by the bench of judges.

He said he believes that the full bench of judges apparently decided not to issue an injunction because Surachate still has six years before he reaches retirement age.

Also, he said, the court will take about a year and a half to issue a ruling, but that should not cause much damage to Surachate.