Three ministers who appeared to quote from the Egrant inquiry in court should exhibit copies of the document as part of proceedings, a civil society group is arguing.

In an urgent court application filed on Wednesday, lawyers for Repubblika asked magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit to order Konrad Mizzi, Edward Scicluna and Chris Cardona to present copies of the document they had quoted from in earlier proceedings.

The ministers had cited extracts from what appeared to be the Egrant inquiry as part of their defence against Repubblika’s legal request for them to face criminal proceedings in connection with a deal privatising three state hospitals.

“The ministers mentioned had the gall to quote from a document which the same duty Magistrate doesn’t have access to and want to make a mockery of her,” Repubblika argued in its application.

Only 55 pages of the Egrant inquiry’s 1,500 have been made public, with the body of the inquiry text remaining tightly under wraps.

In the application, lawyer Jason Azzopardi argued that a document referred to by a witness or party to a case had to either be in the public domain or at least be accessible to the other party and, more importantly, the court.

Repubblika cited the constitutional judgement Mark Charles Stephens vs AG, which found that “The right to a fair hearing supposes compliance with the principle of equality of arms. This principle, which applies to civil as well as criminal proceedings requires each party to be given a reasonable opportunity to present his case under conditions that do not place him at a substantial disadvantage vis-à-vis his opponent.”

They called on the court to declare a breach of the equality of arms principle and order the respondents to exhibit “in its entirety” the document which they had quoted from.