A court has declared that the Superintendent of Public Health cannot deem his office to be above the law when it came to the issuing of a pharmacy licence.

Mr Justice Joseph R Micallef stated this in a judgment following legal action filed by Michael Scicluna.

Mr Scicluna told the court that he had been granted a licence to open a pharmacy in Zabbar.

However, the authorities had later withdrawn the licence. He requested the court to declare that his licence was still valid and to impose a time limit within which he would be able to open and operate this pharmacy.

The Superintendent pleaded that only his office had the discretion and was competent to decide whether a licence ought to be granted.

He added that there were valid reasons at law for the licence not to be issued as the legal distances between the new pharmacy and two other existing pharmacies had not been observed.

Mr Justice Micallef pointed out that the Superintendent's pleas led one to believe that he considered himself above the law and that, in the event that the court were to decide in Mr Scicluna's favour, the Superintendent could reverse this decision.

No public authority ought to portray itself as being exempt from judicial review, the court said.

It said that, in this case, it was not being requested to issue a licence in favour of Mr Scicluna.

It had been asked to decide whether or not the licence that had originally been approved was still valid.

It resulted that Mr Scicluna's request for a licence had been approved by the Superintendent but that this decision had been withdrawn following the objections filed by two other existing Zabbar pharmacies.

The court found that Mr Scicluna's proposed pharmacy was more than 300 metres walking distance from the other pharmacies.

Mr Justice Micallef, therefore, upheld Mr Scicluna's application and found that his licence was valid. The Superintendent was ordered to take his decision about the issue of the licence without any delay.