Magistrate Carol Peralta has written to President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca informing her of his immediate “retirement”, with Justice Minister Owen Bonnici however calling it a “resignation”.

The letter, sent to the press by Dr Bonnici, said Dr Peralta had made the decision after “numerous disappointments and disillusionments” in the local scene, as well as after having reflected on several satisfying appointments abroad and in international bodies.

The 63-year-old magistrate, who is the most senior member of the Bench with 24 years’ experience, could have retired at 62 or stayed on till 65, the maximum retirement age for members of the judiciary.

Sources said that since reaching pensionable age at 62, Dr Peralta has been receiving a pension and salary. In order to retire before reaching 65, he would have to renounce his position, making his decision a resignation.

His retirement comes as the Commission for the Administration of Justice investigates his actions in connection with a Christmas party he organised in his courtroom in 2013.

The sources said the commission now automatically drops the proceedings given that Dr Peralta is no longer a magistrate. This is similar to the case of judge Lino Farrugia Sacco, whose several court cases delayed an impeachment motion which was then automatically aborted when he reached retirement age a year ago.

Magistrate Peralta was at times controversial

Magistrate Peralta brought a certain flair to the job: lawyers often praised him for his common sense and sense of fairness, which they say some other magistrates lacked.

He also stood out for his occasional short temper and for the comic relief he sometimes provided in his courtroom. He was known to switch between the two in a flash.

He was appointed magistrate in 1990 and 13 years later was assigned to the UN Interim Mission in Kosovo, where he served as an international judge with jurisdiction over war crimes and organised crime.

He was elevated to Chief International Judge of Kosovo, managing the international justice programme in the country, and later was asked to join the State Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina as an international judge.

In September 2010, he was elevated to the Appeal Chambers of the same court, where he mainly dealt with appeals filed by the accused in the Srebrenica trials.

He returned to service in the Maltese courts in 2012.

The magistrate is not new to controversy, having faced two impeachment motions, both of which fell through. The first one was proposed by former MP – now judge – Wenzu Mintoff in 1990, asking for his removal from office on grounds of misbehaviour, details of which never emerged.

In December 1994, then prime minister Eddie Fenech Adami filed another impeachment motion against Dr Peralta but the Commission for the Administration of Justice found there were no grounds for it. The content of the motion was never revealed.

Dr Peralta made a name for himself for some eyebrow-raising judgments. In one case involving a man who was run over in Mellieħa after calling someone gay, he justified the incident on grounds that referring to someone as gay was more offensive in Mellieħa.

In another judgment involving theft, he had said that foreigners found guilty of petty crimes faced harsher penalties because they abused the country’s hospitality.

His latest brush with controversy involved a party he threw in his courtroom a few days before Christmas 2013. The magistrate was seen smoking in the courtroom and then allegedly ordered the arrest of a Times of Malta journalist who was alerted to the party and went to investigate.

Dr Peralta claimed that the journalist did not identify himself and tried to take photos surreptitiously. The journalist denied failure to identify himself and spent three hours under arrest at the Valletta police station.

It is not known how far the proceedings before the commission got because it is bound by secrecy.