(AFP File Photo)
The Supreme Constitutional Court will announce the verdict regarding the status of the Shura Council on 2 June.
The case regarding the upper house of parliament had been referred to the State Commissioners Authority, an advisory panel of experts, to give its recommendations since the status of the legislature has changed after the adoption of the constitution.
Several lawyers filed complaints calling for the dissolution of the council, arguing that the law its elections were based upon is unconstitutional. The court had in June dissolved the People’s Assembly, the lower house, leaving the Shura Council as the nation’s only legislature. It ruled the elections law, which was the same for both houses, unconstitutional.
The court was meant to rule on these cases on 2 December but Islamist supporters of President Mohamed Morsi besieged the building and prevented judges from entering, forcing the court to suspend its activity.
By the time the court reconvened the new constitution had passed. The new constitution transfers full legislative authority to the Shura Council until a new lower house, renamed the House of Representatives, is elected.
The constitution also bestows new legislative powers on the council in general, in addition to the ones it held during the transitional period.
The Commissioners Authority report recommended the court should not dissolve the Shura Council since it is protected in the new constitution and is entrusted with legislative authority.
The Supreme Constitutional Court is also expected to announce its verdict on the now-dissolved Constituent Assembly which drafted the constitution on 2 June, as well as the constitutionality of the emergency law; several lawyers had filed cases declaring the emergency law unconstitutional.
