A constitutional court ruled it has the jurisdiction to decide on whether a ruling handed down by Speaker Anglu Farrugia in Parliament is in breach of human rights.

Judge Joseph Zammit Mc Keon, presiding over the First Hall of the Civil Courts in its Constitutional Jurisdiction, gave the ruling in two separate cases - one initiated by former Enemalta consultant Frank Sammut and the other by Cassar Ship Repair chairman Anthony Cassar and Francis Portelli, a director of Virtu Ferries Limited.

All three men said they had been summoned to give evidence in the Public Accounts Committee that was looking into the oil procurement scandal.

However, since all three have pending criminal proceedings connected with the oil scandal, they had informed the PAC that they wished to exercise their right to remain silent.

But they were told that - according to a ruling given by the Speaker Anglu Farrugia and according to Parliament's guidelines to witnesses - they had to give evidence.If they had any objection to a question but to them the Speaker would decide whether they had to answer.

In their applications filed before the First Hall - against the Speaker and PAC chairman Jason Azzopardi - they asked the court to declare that the Speaker's rulings and the guidelines were in breach of their right to a fair hearing as laid down in the Constitution.

But the Speaker and the chairman argued that the courts did not have the jurisdiction to decide on a ruling of the Speaker or on the content of the guidelines since the Constitution gave Parliament the power to regulate itself.

Judge Mc Keon, however, noted that the Constitution stated that Parliament could regulate its proceeding so long as they did not go against the dispositions of the Constitution - which protected the right to a fair hearing.

For this reason the judge ruled that the court could decide on the matter and ordered the continuation of the case.