A court order for PN billboards not to be removed by the Planning Authority risks being withdrawn as the PN “missed” a deadline to initiate proceedings according to law.
The law lays down that an injunction must be followed up with a court case within 20 days.
“The applicant is bound to bring the action in respect of the right stated in the warrant within 20 days from the issue of the warrant,” the law states. It adds: “If the applicant fails, without just cause, to bring such action, the effects of the warrant shall cease and he shall be liable for all damages and interest.”
As the 20-day time window had elapsed, the Planning Authority and Transport Malta filed an application in the First Hall of the Civil Court calling for the revocation of the injunction. Mr Justice Anthony Ellul gave the Nationalist Party 48 hours to respond .
The revocation was strictly on a technical point
On May 10, a judge ruled that the Nationalist Party was justified in refusing to remove its billboards following a sudden change in regulations and issued an injunction stopping the authorities from removing them.
A legal notice issued on April 3 restricted political billboards to three months before an election. If the parties wanted to put up billboards outside that period, they would have to pay a licence of €1,500 per billboard, as in the case of commercial billboards.
The PN argued in court that the charges would run up to about €30,000, effectively muzzling it and stifling its freedom of expression.
Business owners also came out against the regulatory changes, with the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises – GRTU and the Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry both opposing the way rules had been altered.
The authorities had argued that the changes were a means of addressing the existing free-for-all which had been allowed to develop.
The issue in this case, the court said in its ruling on the injunction application, was the PN’s right as a political party and as the Opposition to broadcast its political message and whether the provisions of the new law interfered with such a right.
Asked about this omission, a PN spokesman did not admit that an error had been committed. Instead he said that the authorities’ request for the revocation was “strictly on a technical point”.
Sources said the party filed its case yesterday morning but it was still outside the 20-day time window.
“The Nationalist Party will take all possible legal actions to ensure that it continues to enjoy all the rights afforded to it by the Constitution and the European Convention,” he said.
The spokesman said the party yesterday filed a separate Constitutional Court requesting the court to declare that the government's decision to remove its political billboards was in breach of the party's fundamental rights as guaranteed by the Constitution and the European Convention.
“The Nationalist Party is also requesting the Court to declare that the new Legal Notice regulating billboards is in breach of the Constitution and the European Convention,” he said.