Pitkala traders have obtained a temporary court order to stop the introduction of hefty bank guarantees, saying the authorities had no right to launch a measure that effectively changed their licences.

Mr Justice Joseph R. Micallef upheld the injunction provisionally and a hearing is set for next week to make a final decision on the matter.

The traders applied for the injunction after filing a judicial protest last week in which they argued that the excessive bank guarantees imposed by Agriculture Parliamentary Secretary Roderick Galdes risked driving some of them out of business.

According to a legal notice issued in January, the pitkala, who act as the middlemen between farmers and the market, had to make a bank guarantee equivalent to 10 per cent of the turnover registered the previous year from the sales of agricultural produce.

They called on the authorities to revoke the “unacceptable and quasi-despotic” obligation they were facing.

In their injunction application, filed also against Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and Economy Minister Chris Cardona, the pitkala submitted that the minister could not approve the legal notice because he had no authority to change their licensing conditions.

They also complained that they had never been consulted about this new imposition and were only informed through a letter dated March 26.

Lawyers Adrian Delia and Simon Micallef Stafrace represented the pitkala.