Thailand’s Constitutional Court Drops Charges Against Prime Minister Over Oath-Taking Fiasco

Prayut Chan-O-Cha

BANGKOK, Sept 12 (NNN-TNA) – Thailand’s Constitutional Court, dropped a petition filed against Prime Minister, Prayut Chan-o-cha, over his alleged failure to conduct July’s oath-taking ceremony in full.

The Constitutional Court judges, reached a unanimous resolution to lift the charges against Prayut, for allegedly failing to read out the full message of the ceremonial oath, as stipulated in the constitution’s Section 161, before King Maha Vajiralongkorn.

The Constitutional Court ruled that no agency under the constitution is authorised to judge whether or not such alleged failure might possibly be considered unconstitutional or render the government illegitimate, as charged by Prayut’s critics, including the Ramkhamhaeng University student, who filed the petition.

The oath-taking ceremony conducted just before the government took office was merely a formal activity between the oath takers, namely the prime minister and his cabinet ministers, and the monarch, on which no other agency was legally obliged to judge, according to the Constitutional Court.