The Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) has agreed to reduce the tenure of the charter court president from nine years to three years but decided not to impose a limit on the number of terms the judge can serve.
The decision to reduce the term length is in line with an earlier call from a National Reform Council committee that the tenure of Constitutional Court judges be slashed to prevent judges from acquiring deep-rooted power.
The NRC committee proposed a five-year tenure for all the judges, but the CDC has opted to limit the tenure of the president to three years.
CDC spokesman Gen Lertrat Rattanawanit said the committee decided not to limit the number of terms the charter court president can serve. Constitutional Court judges can serve as the president as long as their colleagues elect him or her every three years.
The president is selected by the court judges. They will still have a nine-year term or retire when they reach 70.
According to Gen Lertrat, the charter drafters also proposed the opposition leader should be empowered to seek a Constitutional Court ruling if a jurisdictional dispute between state agencies arises. In the past, the House speaker, the Senate speaker, the prime minister or the agencies directly involved in a dispute could seek the charter court's intervention.
Meanwhile, CDC chairman Borwornsak Uwanno has signed an order appointing a committee, chaired by Jade Donavanik, to draft an organic law governing the Constitutional Court.
Gen Lertrat said political office-holders who are charged with election fraud or false asset declaration will still face trial in a court of first instance or a special court. However, under the new charter, they will be allowed to appeal the lower court ruling in the Appeals Court.
Political office-holders charged with graft will face trial in the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Political Office-Holders. Unlike the previous charter, they will be allowed to appeal but their requests will be reviewed by an assembly of Supreme Court judges. Tax and labour courts are classified as courts of first instance, Gen Lertrat said.