The lost verdict of the Constitutional Court

Prachatai columnist Bai Tong Hang has searched the website of the Constitutional Court for its official verdict on the Democrat Party dissolution case which the court dismissed in early December last year, but has found nothing.

Two months and two weeks have elapsed since the court handed down its ruling on 9 December 2010 with a 4-3 vote to dismiss the case lodged by the Attorney-general to dissolve the party for allegedly receiving an illegal donation from TPI Polene Ltd Plc via the Messiah Company.

In dismissing the case, the court cited technical grounds that Chair of the Election Commission Aphichart Sukhagganond had not made any decision as the Political Party Registrar.

Of course, this case is finished because the Constitutional Court has given its ruling.  The opposition Phue Thai Party and the media have lost interest.  It now doesn’t matter whether there were any irregularities in the process of selecting court officials, or a court judge appointed his own son as his secretary as alleged at the time, or where the controversial secretary of the President of the Constitutional Court has gone, etc.

However, the court just cannot leave it like this, because it has to release its official verdict for posterity, Bai Tong Hang says.

The Constitutional Court is not required by law to come up with its official verdict in a specific period of time after giving its unofficial ruling, but Point 54 of its own regulations states that the court must publish its verdict together with the views of all the judges in the Royal Gazette. 

Bai Tong Hang argues that the 7 judges of the Constitutional Court must have finished their personal written judgments to be read at the court meeting on the morning of 9 Dec, and after the vote, all the judges have to produce the court’s verdict or assign one of them to write it.  And it would take a few more days for court officials to check it before sending it to be published on the Royal Gazette.  

He raises as an example the 29-million baht fraud case involving the Political Parties Development Fund, when the Constitutional Court gave its ruling on 29 Nov 2010 and the official verdict and the judges’ personal judgments were published on the court’s website on 8 Dec 2010.

So how come the verdict in the 258-million baht donation case is still unpublished after 75 days, despite the fact that during this period the court has already published its verdicts on three other cases?

He hopes that we will not have to wait for this until the general elections, because after the Constitutional Court ruled on the case, the press asked the Chair of the Election Commission how he would show his responsibility, and he said that he wanted to wait to read the official verdict first.

As a result, he has still got away with it, and is about to organize the next general elections.

Source: 
<p>http://www.prachatai3.info/journal/2011/02/33268</p>

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