Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee chairman MK Michael Eitan (Likud) called yesterday’s ruling by Tel Aviv Magistrates Court Judge David Rosen to annul the Income Tax Regulations article regarding tax consultants as “serious dereliction”.
Eitan said, “From today, Israeli citizens no longer know what their legal status is before their case is heard in court, now that any judge in any court, on any matter, can decide which Knesset laws to strike down.”
Eitan added, “The judge’s argument to abrogate the law because it contravened a ruling is evidence of the level of absurdity reached by judicial activism.”
Eitan was responding to Judge Rosen’s decision to strike down an Income Tax Regulations article that restricts the title “tax consultant” to CPAs registered in the tax consultant registry. Judge Rosen argued that the regulation was overly sweeping under the Basic Law: Freedom of Occupation.
Eitan said while the authority of the courts (not only the Supreme Court) to abrogate a law passed by the Knesset if there is a Basic Law that supercedes it was not new, MKs were unaware of it, because that authority was rarely invoked.
Eitan recently announced that in the summer session he plans to formulate a constitution to determine the judicial authority to abrogate Knesset legislation. Hearings on the legislation will be held every two weeks.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on April 15, 2003