The Labour Party this afternoon hailed a Constitutional Court decision which rejected a Nationalist Party request for a case over billboards regulations to be assigned to another judge, saying the PN had been given a dressing down for forum shopping.

The PN has sued the government over a legal notice regulating billboards. Party president Anne Fenech and Secretary General Rosette Thake subsequently filed an application for the case to the reassigned to another judge. They argued that Mr Justice JR Micallef had already taken a decision in a previous case also related to the billboards.

Mr Justice Micallef rejected the application and said the case should continue before him.

In a statement, the PL noted that the Constitutional Court had condemned PN attempts to create unfounded fear or forum shopping which could lead to abuse of the judicial process.

The PL noted that this was not a unique case, and Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi, as lawyer representing Victoria Mayor Samuel Azzopardi had also sought to have a magistrate replaced in a libel case.