Which decisions can be challenged?
- Refusal of a permit, authorisation, approval or licence.
- Disciplinary sanctions, transfers and dismissals of civil servants.
- Decisions awarding or terminating public contracts.
- Municipal orders, planning decisions, transferability orders in expropriation matters.
- Implied rejections resulting from the administration's silence for sixty days.
Grounds for annulment
- Lack of competence of the author of the act.
- Defect of form or procedure (lack of reasons, failure to carry out a mandatory consultation).
- Breach of the law or manifest error of assessment.
- Misuse of power or of procedure.
The procedure
- Optional informal or hierarchical appeal, which interrupts the sixty-day time limit (Article 23 of Law No. 41-90).
- A reasoned petition signed by a lawyer, filed with the competent Administrative Court (Rabat for the Rabat-Salé-Kénitra region).
- Application for a stay of execution if the decision causes harm that would be difficult to repair.
- Exchange of written submissions, report by the reporting judge, hearing and judgment.
- Appeal before the Administrative Court of Appeal within thirty days, then appeal to the Court of Cassation.
What about obtaining compensation?
An action for annulment does not compensate for the harm suffered. A separate action for liability against the administration makes it possible to obtain damages for fault in the public service, or even without fault in certain cases. The two actions can be combined.
This guide is provided for general information by Maître Lahfaia Law Firm, Rabat. It is no substitute for advice tailored to your situation; the rules and deadlines mentioned may change.