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Legalbrief   |   your legal news hub Friday 29 March 2024

Top court hits politicians in their pockets

Members of the Seychelles national assembly have been dealt a financial blow: their state-funded pension scheme has been declared invalid by the country’s Constitutional Court. Three judges of that court heard and decided the dispute over whether legislation establishing a pension scheme for assembly members was unconstitutional. The constitution refers to just three named top officials who will be provided with a pension; all the rest may have a salary, allowances and gratuities from the consolidated fund, with no word about pensions. But government has passed legislation converting the 'allowances' into pensions, a move challenged in court as corrupt, unfair and unconstitutional. Legal writer Carmel Rickard, in her A Matter of Justice column on the Legalbrief site, takes a look at the decision and at the way forward for the government in the wake of the court’s finding that the pensions paid to members of the national assembly and other assembly officials are unconstitutional.