The Binyamin Regional Council filed a complaint with Judge's Ombudsman retired Judge Uri Shoham against Supreme Court Chief Justice Esther Hayut and her fellow judges who overturned the Regulation Law.
The focus of the complaint is the decision by Judge Hayut and the other panel judges in the ruling rejecting the Regulation Law to impose legal expenses on the Council in the amount of NIS 30,000, while writing no rationale, and this despite that the petition was not directed against the Council but against the legislature.
The complaint was forwarded to Judge Shoham, with Council Deputy Head Raful Engel stating in it that this was a very unusual ruling because the Council was only attached as a respondent to the petition and the petition was not directed against it. The State itself was fined the same amount as the Council was fined.
Engel wrote that apart from the ruling itself, the ruling in the matter of legal expenses "expresses disparaging treatment of the complainant (Binyamin Council), and even expresses many questions, the 'odor' emerging from which suggests bias based on the identity of the respondents and an attempt to 'teach them a lesson'. The Honorable Commissioner will be asked to open with the authority vested in him an in-depth investigation into the matter."
The Binyamin Council also claims that in violation of law, the judges were required to provide a rationale explaining why expenses were imposed but they failed to do so.
An examination conducted by the Council showed that no expenses were ever imposed on respondents who were not respondents of the government or the Knesset when the petition concerned repeal of a law. Following the ruling, the Council even submitted a reasoned request to cancel the expenses but were rebuffed laconically.
In conclusion, the Council writes that since the case is inconsistent with customary law and even with the factual reality of ruling on expenses for petitioners or respondents other than the government or the Knesset, the Council takes the judges' conduct very seriously and believes an in-depth examination of the case should be opened.
The Binyamin Council in the Settlement Law was represented by Adv. Simcha Rotman, who submitted the Council's complaint to the Ombudsman for Complaints against Judges.
According to Council Chairman Yisrael Gantz: "We're well aware of the dual morality in Supreme Court rulings. No wonder those judges who trample the rights of settlers and uproot settlements against the rules of natural justice also impose unprecedented fines against the settlers who come to defend against the callous far-Left organizations that find a warm and loving place in the Supreme Court. In charging expenses, the Supreme Court chose to convey a political message."