Top judge questions 'meddling moves'

The Administrative Courts have enjoyed the trust of the people, at more than 90 per cent, in the past 12 years, but the coalition lawmakers are suspiciously determined to dismantle the judicial system, a top court official said.

"It is a big puzzle why the coalition wants to meddle with or transform the judiciary," Supreme Administrative Court president Hassavut Vititviriyakul said.

Hassavut made the remarks in response to speculation that the charter rewrite, once activated, would aim to disband the administrative judicial system in order to make it a part of the courts of justice.

He said his courts had consistently won the highest approval rating from the public and he saw no justification to combine the administrative and justice courts.

Last year saw an unprecedented jump with 11,635 administrative cases in the judicial docket, of which some 9,208 verdicts were handed down.

Of the total litigation, 2,753 cases were related to the construction zoning, followed by environment (2,173 cases), personnel dispute (1,689 cases) and property repossession (1,662 cases).

Songkhla had the highest litigation on environment with 1,450 cases.

The top five ministries involved in administrative disputes are Interior, Transport, Education, Agriculture and Finance.

Work plans for this year would focus on simplifying the procedures for the people to access the judicial review.

The courts would also try to clear the backlog of cases, setting the deadline for complete the decisions on cases lodged since 2009.