(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) The National Assembly approved a draft law on Tuesday enabling any citizen to challenge any law or draft law or by-law before the state Constitutional Court if he or she finds them violating the spirit and letter of the constitution.
The draft law sets a number of conditions governing the process of the challenge, among which is the need for the challenger to have his formal complaint endorsed by three attorneys acceptable to the Constitutional Court.
Moreover, the challenger must deposit the amount of KD 5000 with court authorities, forfeitable by them, if the court voids the challenger's case.
The lawmakers who backed the draft law noted that if it was adopted officially, it would set a historical precedence that would grant the citizen the right to challenge laws of the land in front of the Constitutional Court, without fear and with full confidence.
As the Assembly overwhelmingly voted for the draft law today, the government on the other hand rejected it as State Minister for Cabinet Affairs and Acting Minister of Justice Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah Al-Sabah, speaking for the government, said that he sided with the view of the Higher Judicial Council, which looked with disfavor on the draft law.
The Council's chairman, Chief Justice Faisal Al-Marshad, in a written opinion, said that if such a draft law was adopted, it would fling the door wide open for those who will abuse the prerogative of challenging the nation's laws, so much so it would cause the Constitutional Court, looking into the validity of challengers' complaints, to have an unwieldy backlog of cases requiring much of its attention which should, in the first place, go toward dispensing its normal monumental duties.
Following the Assembly's session on the draft law and other incidentals, Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim told reporters that the draft law was tantamount to every citizen's dream and ambition to activate the contents of the constitution regarding equality, justice, and freedom of expression, adding that the draft law was a constitutional demand since 1973.
He hoped that the draft law would pass and that the government change its mind about rejecting it.
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