High Constitutional Court to resume on 15 January

Egypt\'s Constitutional Court will begin its work by looking into two controversial cases: the legitimacy of both the Shura Council and the now defunct constituent assembly After almost one-month adjournment, Egypt\'s High Constitutional Court (HCC), scheduled to resume its work on 15 January, will begin by looking into appeals against the now defunct constituent assembly and the Shura Council, the upper house of parliament, which took over legislative authorities after the ratification of the new constitution. This court session was previously scheduled for 2 December 2012 and on 13 January 2013. The verdicts however were postponed when the HCC declared on 2 December that it would indefinitely suspend all sessions in protest of pressure exerted upon it by supporters of President Mohamed Morsi. Pro-Morsi demonstrators had gathered outside the court building to protest against expected verdicts that might have dissolved both bodies. President Morsi had also issued on 22 November a controversial Constitutional Declaration making the two bodies immune to dissolution. In response, the judges declared a partial strike, saying the declaration infringed upon judicial authority. The newly approved constitution protects the Shura Council in the interim until the election of a new parliament. From Ahramonline