The Constitutional Court yesterday confirmed a judgment delivered last year which awarded Garden of Eden Ltd €50,000 after the Transport Ministry and the Prime Minister stopped the company from making use of its open-top buses.

Garden of Eden had wanted to operate open-topped, double decker buses and imported three in 2004.

Transport Malta, however, refused to license the buses on the basis that they did not conform to the law in force at the time. But the Commission for Fair Trading had in 2008 found in favour of the company and the licences were issued on its instruction.

That year the company imported another eight buses but the process of granting them a licence was halted by the minister on grounds that new regulations were to be issued to govern the operation of such buses on the local market. The regulations were issued in 2009 but the authorities still failed to issue the licences.

Alfred and Joseph Spiteri and Garden of Eden filed a case against the Transport Minister, the Prime Minister and Transport Malta but Transport Malta was exonerated from all responsibility by the First Hall of the Civil Court.

Last month the Court of Appeal found that the failure to issue the licences was in violation of the law and awarded compensation of €50,000.

The court added that throughout the years, the company had only been allowed to make use of the first three buses and not the other eight it had imported.

All parties appealed from the first judgment but the Constitutional Court yesterday confirmed the compensation.

The decision exonerating Transport Malta was however overturned and they were found to be responsible too.