In blow to AG, High Court proposes 3 months run for civil service chief tapped by PM

Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter

Attorney Roi Kahlon (Shelly Padan)
Attorney Roi Kahlon (Shelly Padan)

The High Court of Justice proposes that the acting civil service commissioner appointed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu serve in the position for three months, despite his appointment having been opposed by the attorney general.

Netanyahu appointed attorney Roi Kahlon to the position last week, in defiance of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara’s position. She had taken the side of petitioners to the High Court arguing that Kahlon did not meet the qualification criterial for the post, even as a stop-gap appointment.

But the High Court panel, made up of conservative justices Noam Sohlberg and David Mintz, and liberal justice Daphne Barak-Erez, proposes that instead of issuing a final ruling, Kahlon be allowed to serve for three months. It says, however, that his period as acting civil service commissioner should not be extended beyond three months, implying either that a different permanent appointment be made for the post or that another interim head be appointed.

The ruling is a blow to Baharav-Miara, who strongly opposes Kahlon’s appointment, asserting that he is under-qualified, that his resumé is inaccurate, that there were procedural flaws with his appointment, and that there was therefore a legal impediment to appointing him to the post.

Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs, who has frequently tussled with the attorney general, says the court’s proposal demonstrated Baharav-Miara’s bad faith when dealing with the government and accuses her of “inventing” legal arguments against it.

He referred to a similar ruling, also issued by Sohlberg, in which the High Court rejected a petition against the appointment of Odelia Minnes, as temporary chair of the Second Authority commercial broadcasting regulatory body, a case in which Baharav-Miara not only opposed the government’s position, but also refused to allow it independent counsel to argue its case in court.

Sohlberg in that ruling rebuked the attorney general over the substance of the issue and her refusal to grant the communications minister independent counsel.

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