The Constitutional Court settles the controversy over the draft civil procedure.

Agadir24

Al Akhbar newspaper reported, on Friday, August 9, 2024, that the move by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rachid Talbi Alami, to submit the draft Civil Procedure Code to the Constitutional Court comes in light of the fact that this law is not ordinary, given that it is more than 6 decades old, which requires exhausting legislative efforts to scrutinize its provisions and protect it from any violation of the Constitution, especially since it constitutes the backbone of judicial security and ensures individuals’ access to justice.

The Constitutional Court is expected to decide, Al Akhbar newspaper said in its issue today, Friday, the constitutional debate raised by some provisions of the draft civil procedure law referred to the House of Councillors, after the first chamber approved it before the conclusion of the spring session of Parliament.

The draft civil procedure law was widely discussed, while Abdel Latif Wahbi, Minister of Justice, defended the constitutionality of all its articles.

Al-Alami confirmed that the draft Civil Procedure Code will be referred to the Constitutional Court for a final vote, based on the provisions of Article 132 of the Constitution, which states that “the King, as well as the Prime Minister, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Speaker of the House of Councillors, a fifth of the members of the House of Representatives, or forty members of the House of Councillors, may refer laws, before issuing an order for their implementation, to the Constitutional Court, to decide on their conformity with the Constitution.”

Accordingly, the Constitutional Court “shall rule on the cases stipulated in the second and third paragraphs of Article 132, within a period of one month from the date of referral. However, this period shall be reduced in cases of urgency to eight days, at the request of the government.”

This procedure is a constitutional and parliamentary precedent in the history of the Kingdom, as throughout the past decades the Speaker of the House of Representatives has never taken the initiative to request a statement on the conformity of a law with the country’s constitution, while draft laws are generally voted on by the parliamentary majority, and the draft is either passed or rejected.