The Constitution Court on Wednesday refused to accept a petition asking it to rule whether the rice sales under government-to-government (G-to-G) agreements require approval from parliament under Section 190 of the charter.
The court reasoned that no copies of rice sales contracts were attached to the petition for its consideration.
The petition, signed by 67 senators, was submitted to the court on Oct 16 by Paiboon Nitiwan, a senator in the Group of 40.
Mr Paiboon said the G-to-G contracts to sell 7.32 million tonnes of rice worth more than 114 billion baht, as stated by Commerce Minister Boonsong Teriyapirom, concerned the country's trade and investment. They might affect economic security by incurring public debt, potentially causing a financial crisis.
Pimol Thampithakpong, the court's chief spokesman, said the Constitution Court judges decided at a meeting today not to accept the petition for consideration because there were no copies of rice sales contracts attached to it.
If the senators got copies of the contracts, they could resubmit the petition for consideration. The court attaches importance to the contracts, which concern international trade, he said.