A coach company which has been battling for the right to use its open-top buses on Maltese roads has initiated fresh legal action after it was again ordered to stop using its vehicles.
The fresh controversy comes after the Commission for Fair Trading (CFT) had slammed the Malta Transport Authority (ADT) in May for delaying the permits for the buses to be used.
Garden of Eden had first imported three buses in 1993 but they remained locked up for 15 years until a decision was made by the CFT in October 2008 to release them.
Following that decision the same garage then imported another eight, in 2008 and this year, thinking that things would be plain sailing. But when the vehicles arrived in Malta, the licences were again blocked by the ADT, leading to a similar decision by the CFT in May.
In the judicial protest filed yesterday, the company said that despite having paid the eight buses' customs duty, their licensing had been suspended by the ADT even though at first they had been cleared for use.
Garden of Eden said that after it went to the CFT last May, the government published a legal notice replacing existing legislation.
The garage complained that its applications for registration were now being considered under the new legislation, which meant that it was being made to satisfy conditions that were not in existence when it first imported the buses and applied for registration.
Garden of Eden argued that its applications should be processed according to the legislation which was effective when the applications were submitted.
The garage also filed a request for a warrant of prohibitory injunction after it received a letter on July 30, from the Director of Public Transport, Vincent Micallef Pulé, ordering it to stop using the three busses first imported in 1993.
The buses had been built before May 19, 1999 and were registered under their present licence.
The letter cited legal notice 69 (3) which says: "No operator should use or let the use of, open top busses that are operating under their present licence, that have been manufactured more than 10 years before these regulations came into force, for any aim other than to offer a service on routes carrying tourist passengers according to this regulation".
The letter added that they may be used only on routes established by and with the approval of the ADT and after it had also satisfied all the conditions established under the legal notice.
In the request for a warrant, the garage asked the courts to stop the ADT from applying the legal notice as this was restricting the market in this sector especially following the decision by the CFT.
It added that the warrant needed to be temporarily imposed to prevent the ADT from revoking all the necessary licences for the busses.
Lawyers Michael Tanti Dougall and Mark Simiana signed the protest and warrant.