The Office of the Ombudsman will pass on a petition seeking the Constitutional Court's ruling on whether the Supreme Court's resolution in the Hopewell case is in breach of the charter or not.
The petition is jointly sponsored by the Transport Ministry and the State Railway of Thailand (SRT). For their petition to be heard in court, it must be submitted via the Office of the Ombudsman.
The petition essentially seeks the court's clarification of the resolution passed by the Supreme Court's arbitration tribunal delivered on Nov 27, 2003.
The ministry and the SRT claimed the resolution did not comply with the law since the arbitration tribunal failed to send the resolution to parliament for inspection and did not publish it in the Royal Gazette. The failure rendered the resolution unenforceable.
Also, the resolution ran counter to the law on the Administrative Court as it contained the Supreme Court judges' decision on the statute of limitations in the Hopewell case.
Reflected in the resolution, the majority of judges determined the statute of limitations began to be counted on the day the Administrative Court was founded on March 9, 2001.
However, the Establishment and Proceedings of Administrative Cases Act 1999 says the statute of limitations commences on the day the dispute in the case is known, according to the petition.
The alleged mistake in the judges' interpretation of the statute of limitations makes the resolution unconstitutional, in their view.
According to the petition, if the statute of limitations issue had been observed according to the act, the SRT and the ministry might not have to compensate Hopewell (Thailand).
The Supreme Administrative Court had ruled that Hopewell (Thailand) had petitioned for the arbitration tribunal's judgement within the legal timeframe.
In April, the Supreme Administrative Court ordered the ministry and the SRT to pay Hopewell (Thailand) almost 25 billion baht for wrongfully terminating a contract in 1998 to build a 60-kilometre elevated highway and rail system.