A Constitutional Court has overturned a previous ruling which decreed that the law allowing the conversion of a long lease from temporary to perpetual breached human rights.

The case hinges on a constitutional application filed in 1999 by John and Anna Grima. They complained that a tenant, who had built a house on their land in Gozo leased to him on a temporary emphyteusis of 99 years, was allowed to convert the lease to a perpetual one under section 12 of the Housing Decontrol Ordinance, depriving them of their right to the property or proper compensation.

Last September, the First Hall of the Civil Court upheld the Grimas’ claims and concluded that section 12(4) and (5) of the ordinance were null as they were in violation of human rights.

Both the Attorney General and the tenant, Michael Camilleri, appealed the judgment.

The Constitutional Court referred to a 2009 judgment in the case Josephine Bugeja vs Attorney General, which had concluded the law did not violate human rights, although there could be cases where the application of the two sections of the law in particular circumstances could constitute such a violation.

The Constitutional Court argued that sections 12(4) and (5) of the ordinance could not be examined in a vacuum but in relation to all the facts of the case.

Mr and Mrs Grima’s constitutional application had been untimely because the issue of whether Mr Camilleri was entitled to convert his title from a temporary to a permanent one was still pending before the ordinary courts. Moreover, when Mr and Mrs Grima bought the land in 1994, they stepped into the shoes of the person who had originally granted the land by title of temporary emphyteusis. They, therefore, enjoyed the same rights as the original owner to contest any claims in respect of the land.

The Constitutional Court, composed of Acting Chief Justice Geoffrey Valenzia, Mr Justice Giannino Caruana Demajo and Mr Justice Tonio Mallia, upheld the appeal and revoked the first court’s judgment.