The Constitution Court has accepted for consideration a petition filed by a group of MPs and senators asking that it rule on the constitutionality of the 2014 Budget Bill.
"The Constitution Court has examined the petition and decided to accept it for consideration and making a ruling," the court announced on Wednesday.
The court ordered the chairman of the parliament committee for the scrutiny of the Budget Bill, the Budget Bureau, the Office of the Administrative Court, the Office of the Judiciary and the office of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) to submit letters of explanation to the Constitution Court by Oct 1.
The chairman of the Budget Bill scrutiny committee or his representative, and representatives of the four agencies are required to appear before the Constitution Court to give their explanation on Oct 2.
The petition for a Constitution Court ruling was filed by 50 senators led by appointed senator Paiboon Nititawan and 62 Democrat Party MPs led by Songkhla MP Wirat Kallayasiri, citing Section 154 (1) of the constitution.
The lawmakers asked the court to rule if Section 27 on allocations for the Office of the Judiciary and office of the Administrative Court and Section 28 for the NACC contravene Section 168 of the constitution.
According to the petition, the agencies under Sections 27 and 28 each proposed an allocation from the 2014 budget to the cabinet, but the cabinet slashed the amounts they proposed.
When the 2014 Budget Bill was in parliament, these agencies asked the budget scrutiny committee to increase the allocations to ensure they were adequate for their operations, but the committee did not invite them to give information and ignored their requests.
The scrutiny commitee instead increased the budgets for other agencies, including the Interior and Tourism and Sports ministries.
The cabinet on Tuesday resolved to extend the use of the fiscal 2013 Budget beyond Oct 1, pending the Constitution Court's consideration of petitions on the issue of constitutionality.