The former chairman of the National Book Council has filed a judicial protest over the council’s composition.

In his protest filed on Wednesday against Education Minister Justyne Caruana, who has since resigned, and permanent secretary Frank Fabri, author Mark Camilleri claimed they broke the law when they “completely disregarded” a decision taken by members of the National Book Congress when appointing the council.

Camilleri also called on the new chief executive of the National Book Council to resign, together with the rest of the council.

He explained that during his tenure as president, he had presented draft legislation to Caruana, which had been drafted at the request of the absolute majority of council members.

The draft law had been intended to ensure that the council's board remained independent of partisan interference and was appointed through free elections – as opposed to the current system in which it is appointed at the absolute discretion of the Education Minister and the Prime Minister.

Camilleri said the minister had completely ignored the stakeholders’ requests and instead used its discretion to promote “interests which are purely and exclusively partisan instead of protecting the interests of the relevant stakeholders, who are the authors and publishers”.

In doing so, she had betrayed the obligation that the board of the National Book Council be free of partisan interference, Camilleri said.

He said the present council had taken no action to give effect to the recommendation made by its predecessors and insisted that the recommendation remained valid.

He further argued that the current National Book Council was illegitimate as it had not been appointed according to the wishes and recommendations made by the stakeholders in May.

The judicial protest formally asked the defendants to desist from further abusive behaviour and warned them that they would be held responsible for damages should they not comply.

Lawyers Joseph Mizzi and Timothy Spiteri signed the protest.