Government authorities have been prohibited by the court from holding two public auctions.
Mr Justice Joseph Zammit McKeon upheld a request filed by the Malta Police Association and Frankie Sammut and Malcolm Bondin and prohibited the authorities from holding two public auctions.
The court heard that one of the two auctions was for the sale of 129 cars, boats and spare parts that were used by the police or held by the police. The second auction was for the sale of 800 firearms which were used by the police or which were in the possession of the police force.
According to the association, no public officers, including police officers, were allowed to bid for any of the items that were to be sold in the auctions.
The Association and Mr Sammut and Mr Bondin therefore requested the court to prohibit the Commissioner of Lands, the Permanent Secretary in the Home Affairs Ministry, the auctioneer and Obelisk Auctions Ltd from holding the auctions since public officers were not allowed to bid.
Applicants submitted before the courts that there was no provision of the law that imposed the prohibition on the part of public officers to bid at auctions. Their exclusion was, therefore, discriminatory, arbitrary and illegal.
On their part, respondents submitted that they were authorised to impose this prohibition in terms of a legal notice issued in 1966. This excluded public officers from bidding at auctions so as to avoid the possibility of a conflict of interest between the role of a public officer, such as a policeman, and participation in an auction.
Mr Justice Zammit McKeon said that the first auction which was intended for the sale of cars, boats and spare parts, had a minimum value of €13,595, while the second auction for the sale of firearms had a minimum value of over €64,000. The court added that the legal notice quoted by respondents did not apply to sales by auctions but to calls for the public to submit offers.
The court added that in its opinion, respondents were incorrectly interpreting the legal notice by applying it to sales by auction instead of limiting it to public calls for offers.