Ouahbi calls for excluding Royal Commissioner from defending State interests

Morocco’s Justice Minister Abdelatif Ouahbi considers that the Kingdom’s  Royal Commissioner poses a significant challenge in defending cases facing state institutions before administrative courts. He stressed that the majority of lawsuits filed against the state do not reach them.

“There is a major problem,” said Ouahbi, during a meeting of the House of Representatives Justice, Legislation, and Human Rights Committee on Tuesday to continue the detailed discussion of the draft civil procedure law. “The Royal commissioner has access to only 40% of the ongoing judicial files against the state.”

Revealing a new direction currently under discussion, the Minister of Justice stated, “we are moving towards a different approach that has not yet been finalized; however, discussions are ongoing and a proposal is being considered at this stage.”

Elaborating further, Ouahbi stated, “we have the Royal Commissioner defending the law,” adding in an exasperated tone, “they don’t defend the law or anything, and should leave us alone.” The Public Prosecutor’s Office is the one that appears in the administrative court to represent the state, as it defends both the state and society.”

He continued, “we met with the President of the Supreme Council of the Judiciary to discuss this issue and develop a plan. However, I’m not in favor of adopting Egypt’s current administrative prosecution system.”

Ouahbi urged the representatives to propose amendments on the issue of filing appeals, which had been criticized by the representatives, granting state institutions the right to appeal verdicts while denying this right to citizens. The representatives deemed this “an inequality in litigation between the citizen and the administration.”

The Minister of Justice admitted to facing issues on this subject with representatives of the administration and public institutions who defended it, expressing his support for the representatives’ views and urging them to submit amendments regarding the article on filing appeals and reconsidering the decisions issued by the Court of Cassation.

For context, the Royal Commissioner is responsible for carrying out notification processes and executing orders, judgments, and decisions, as well as all contracts and documents with enforceable power, referring to the judiciary in case of any difficulties.

This excludes execution procedures related to the eviction of premises, real estate sales, and the sale of ships, aircraft, and commercial assets.

The Royal Commissioner is responsible for delivering litigation summonses in accordance with the conditions stipulated in the Civil Procedure Code and other specific laws, as well as the attendance summonses outlined in the Criminal Procedure Code.

They may also collect amounts awarded or due under an enforceable title and, if necessary, proceed with public auctions of tangible movable property.

The Royal Commissioner serves notices directly upon request of the concerned party unless the law specifies another method of notification.

They are appointed by the judiciary to conduct purely factual inspections without any opinion. They can also carry out similar inspections directly upon request of the interested party.