KUWAIT CITY, Feb 17: In a ruling that ends the suffering of hundreds of employees, victims of work accidents and injuries, the Constitutional Court presided over by Judge Muhammad bin Naji yesterday ruled to nullify article No. 5 of decision No. 206/P/2011 issued by the Minister of Social Affairs and Labor for organizing the Medical Arbitration Committee, which fortified its decisions and made them final without being subject to appeal. The court based its ruling on the fact that “the committee’s decisions are purely administrative and does not initiate an act of judicial litigation.

The court stated that, “The stipulation that the committee’s decisions are final and not subject to appeal, and granting protection to them regardless of the extent of their legality, prevents them from judicial oversight and closes the door to judicial dispute, as well as deprives individuals of their constitutional right to litigate. Fortifying the committee’s decisions is a violation of the principle of equality and contradicts the principle of separation of powers.

The administrative court has the mandate to annul administrative decisions in violation of the law, and the mandate to compensate them. It is a fundamental pillar of the constitutional system.”

The constitutional ruling was made based on a lawsuit filed by a Kuwaiti woman who was an employee of Kuwait Oil Company and had met with an accident. The medical arbitration committee estimated her injuries as a disability rate of only three percent, but she believed that this estimate does not conform to her severe back pain, neck and hand injuries that may lead to disability. Overall, she challenged the committee’s report. During the hearing of the case at the Administrative Court, it was suspended and referred to the Constitutional Court that annulled this law.

By Jaber Al-Hamoud Al-Seyassah Staff