Updated 2,.13pm with Labour Party reaction below.

The PN has repeated its call for Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri to resign after a court upheld a request to investigate an alleged racket at the state agency LESA. 

Last month lawyer Jason Azzopardi filed another court application seeking a magisterial inquiry into what he alleged was a fraudulent racket being operated by LESA officials, who reportedly fined tourists for contraventions committed by local drivers, sparing the latter penalty points on their licenses. 

In a statement signed by PN shadow ministers Darren Carabott and Claudette Buttigieg, the PN said that once again Camilleri had failed to "demonstrate seriousness and take immediate action", instead waiting on others to take the lead in addressing the situation. 

"While the PN always insists on a separation between political work and the operations within government entities, political responsibility and the decisions required to investigate allegations such as those made weeks ago fall on the Minister," they said. 

"So far, the Minister has remained silent and has not stated what actions he will take."

The party made similar calls for Camilleri's resignation earlier last month, following another alleged scandal uncovered by Azzopardi, in which he claimed that Identità officials had issued some 18,000 ID cards fraudulently and on the back of forged documents. 

"This inquiry into the cancellation of penalty points within LESA joins a list of scandals, including the inquiry into ID cards with false addresses and secret meetings between prison officials and prisoners, among others," they said. 

"The PN again insists that political responsibility should be shouldered and Minister Byron Camilleri should resign."

Labour; The inquiry is not about Byron Camilleri 

In a reaction, the Labour Party said the inquiry was not about Byron Camilleri and the request for an inquiry never mentioned the minister.

It said an extremist faction within the Nationalist Party had a policy of requesting inquiries and then demanding resignations even before the inquiries were held. 

The Labour Party noted that the minister had already declared that he was not worried about scrutiny of any entity within his ministry. He had strengthened and was continuing to improve governance, and the Auditor-General had noted that recommendations he made over the past few years had been taken on board.