Issue No: 932; 12 July 2001

The judge delivered his ruling in the case filed by the Citizen's Constitutional Forum against the President Ratu Josefa Iloilo's decision that the Parliament be dissolved without going through the procedures laid down in the Constitution.

While Scott agreed that the elected Prime Minister had advised the President to reconvene the Parliament, as specified by the Constitution, the President refused to accept this advice and instead opted to dismiss the Prime Minister on grounds that he had lost support of the Parliament. The Constitution specifies that this support must be gauzed in the Parliament through a vote of co-confidence. Iloilo refused to let the Parliament decide on this matter, and instead took the law in his own hand.

Scott exonerated Iloilo and refused to declare as null and void the dismissal of the elected Prime Minister, the dissolution of the Parliament, and the appointment of an unelected Laisenia Qarase as the Prime Minister.

Scott stated that he accepted the Iloilo position, as well as the positions of the Qarase regime, the military and the Great Council of Chiefs that reconvening the Parliament "would create a wholly unacceptable risk to the peace and welfare of the nation". He further stated that in "some unusual or extreme situations a departure from the normal requirements of the Constitution is in my opinion permitted".