The Chief Justice, Silvio Camilleri, and Mr Justice Tonio Mallia have a conflict of interest in deciding cases where the University of Malta is involved as they are lecturers and examiners, a couple have complained.

The judges were deciding on their case, which directly involves the university, in the morning, and then lecturing at the university in the afternoon, they said.

The couple, Carmel and Mary Stivala, said they had lost a civil suit against the university in which the court declared they had no legal title to land in Msida and were ordered to vacate the property within one month.

Following an appeal, Chief Justice Camilleri, Mr Justice Mallia and Mr Justice Joseph Azzopardi were appointed to hear the case, the couple said.

On May 20, the appeal was deferred for judgment despite a pending application from the couple requesting that the judges remove themselves from the case because of the conflict of interest and for the case to be re-appointed.

They pointed out that they had not even made submissions on the application when they were informed of the decision to defer the case for judgment.

In their application to the Constitutional Court, the couple argued that their human rights had been breached because of this and asked for the situation to be remedied.

Lawyer Malcolm Mifsud signed the application.