A senior magistrate yesterday filed a judicial protest against the government claiming a violation of fundamental human rights.

Magistrate Dennis Montebello filed his protest against the Prime Minister, the Minister for Justice, the parliamentary secretary in the ministry, the director general of the law courts and the Attorney General.

In his protest the magistrate said he had held the post of senior magistrate for over 15 years.

In terms of current law, he was due to retire when he turned 60 (today), but the government was planning to amend the Constitution so that the compulsory retirement age for magistrates would be 65.

Magistrate Montebello said this Bill would not be enacted before he was due to retire later this month and he would, therefore, not be able to serve until he reached 65 years of age even though he was prepared to do so.

The Bill to amend the Constitution made no provision to enable magistrates who had retired under the current law to be reinstated once the retirement age was raised.

This created an anomaly in that Magistrate Montebello would retire at 60 while the Constitution, once amended, stipulated that magistrates had to serve until the age of 65. The magistrate added that he would then be on a pension as envisaged by law, which pension was not proportionate to his income at present. He claimed that it was obvious that the Bill had been timed to preclude him from continuing to work and that it was discriminatory in his regard and, therefore, in violation of his human rights.

Magistrate Montebello said that as a result he would be subjected to restrictions that other magistrates, present and future, would not be subjected to.

In conclusion Magistrate Montebello called on the government to take all such action as was required to protect his rights and allow him to serve as magistrate until the age of 65.

Lawyers Toni Abela and Rachel Loporto Montebello signed the protest.