High court rules out prosecution review on charter change
Play
The Constitution Court on Friday issued a statement rebutting the prosecution review on charter change bill, saying the decision by the attorney general has no linkage to the judicial inquiry into the draft legislation.
Even though the attorney general had decided not to prosecute the case, this was a mandate vested in the prosecution but had no bearing on the judiciary, the high court said in its statement.
Article 68 of the Constitution prescribes for complainants to bring any attempts to topple the democratic rule with the King as head of state to the attention of the attorney general for fact-finding checks and to petition the Constitution Court for review.
The high court interpreted that “and” was a conjective word joining two phrases to allow the complainants to initiate the legal proceedings with the attorney general and alternately with the court.
For the case in question, the high court already ruled to launch an inquiry regardless of the legal opinions of the attorney general.
