New York City Commission on Human Rights

The Commission's Newsletter 2004 Summer/Fall Edition Page 1	Contents \| << Back \| Next>>
Sikh Traffic Enforcement Agent Returns to Work in Landmark Case
Two years after resigning from the New York City Police Department (NYPD), Sikh Traffic Enforcement Agent Jasjit Singh Jaggi is back in uniform - with turban and beard - doing the job he enjoys, directing traffic. In a landmark religious discrimination case, the NYPD reinstated Mr. Jaggi following CCHR’s Final Decision and Order. Three members of the Commission - Reverend Calvin O. Butts III, Dr. Edison O. Jackson, and Rabbi Haskel Lookstein - issued the Final Decision and Order in late July. It was the first such order in the nation issued to a law enforcement agency compelling them to grant a Sikh employee a religious accommodation. The NYPD did not appeal the Commission's Order, allowing Mr. Jaggi to return to work in August and fulfill his religious obligations by wearing a turban while performing traffic enforcement duties. Prior to the Commission's Final Decision and Order, Law Enforcement Bureau Deputy Commissioner Avery Mehlman and staff attorney Natalie Holder-Winfield argued the case before Administrative Law Judge Donna R. Merris of the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings, who found that Mr. Jaggi had been discriminated against on religious grounds. As a result of the Commission's groundbreaking work on the case and its resolution, the NYPD settled a similar case which had taken a different route. Today, the other NYPD Traffic Enforcement Agent, who had filed a federal civil rights lawsuit, has been fully reinstated.	Back on the job with turban and beard, Jasjit Singh Jaggi directs traffic headed towards the Brooklyn Bridge. Photo: Todd Maisel - Daily News
	Deputy Commissioner Avery Mehlman addresses the media outside police headquarters after the NYPD reinstated Traffic Enforcement Agent Jaggi, wearing the white turban.