The ruling of the court stemmed from a lawsuit filed by former Sen, Santy Asanuma against the Senate in May 2010.
In his lawsuit, the former lawmaker claimed that he was denied his constitutional right to inspect government documents and to attend a hearing conducted by the Senate Commtitee on Foreign Affairs.
The barring of Asanuma from examining the documents and from observing the hearing came after a confidentiality agreement was signed by the Senate and National Development Bank of Palau President Kaleb Udui.
The confidentiality agreement banned “any person, media and public from examining the records submitted by defendants to Senate committee and from attending the hearing.”
The court dismissed Asanuma’s contention that his rights as a citizen under Section 12 of the Palau Constitution was violated by the Senate committee’s action to bar him from attending that particular hearing.
Section 12 of the Palau Constitutions states that “a citizen has the right to examine any government document and to observe the official deliberations of any agency of government.”
The court ruled that both houses of the legislature and the judiciary are not considered as agencies of the government under the Constitution, “hence the aforementioned provision of the law does not apply here.”
The court has not yet ruled on whether Asanuma has a right to examine the subpoenaed government documents produced by the NDBP for the Senate hearing.
The case is Asanuma vs Senate, et al.
