After the conditional order that the High Court issued this morning against the Minister of Justice Yariv Levin demanding that he convene the committee for the selection of judges, the government and the Minister of Justice have now submitted a request to the court: "The court is requested to cancel its decision"
The request reads: "With all due respect, the honorable court is requested to cancel its decision to issue a conditional order dated 9/14/23, which was given without authority, and in obvious contradiction to the law, and in particular to regulations 5, 7, and 9 of the regulations of the procedure in the High Court of Justice, 5744 (1984).
"With all due respect, the court is not authorized to determine for the respondents, and certainly when it comes to the Minister of Justice and the Government of Israel, what will be written in the answering affidavit, and this is also subject to the sole discretion of the respondents. The court's determination of what the respondents' affidavit includes deprives the respondents of the basic right to hear their voice in a way that prevents the possibility of doing justice."
The High Court of Justice to Levin: "Justify why you don't convene the committee for selecting judges"
As announced in the decision given today in the High Court, a conditional order was issued regarding the petition of the Movement for the Quality of Government against the Minister of Justice Yariv Levin. The order instructs the Minister to justify his decision not to convene the Committee for the Selection of Judges. In other words, the burden of proof shifts to the defendant.
At the end of the only hearing that will be held on the decision of the Minister of Justice not to convene the committee in its current composition, the court will decide what to do, if it is convinced that the minister's reasons are justified, it will allow the order, and if it is not convinced, the court will impose an interim order stating that the committee must convene immediately.
Minister Levin, as mentioned, did not convene the committee for the selection of judges because it does not have adequate representation for elected officials and according to him "the matter is in complex and complicated constitutional negotiations to forge a broad consensus in the public, social, and political dispute". The legislative procedure that led Levin to change the composition of the committee was stopped for a moment according to the approval of the law in the second and third reading following the wave of protests.
