A court has ruled that the case filed by a financial advisory company against the government over the concession of the Individual Investor Programme to Henley and Partners will continue to be heard but former Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia and the Attorney General have been exempted from the proceedings.

The case was filed by Lawyer Tanya Sciberras Camilleri, on behalf of Arton Capital, against former Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia, his former Permanent Secretary, Kevin Mahoney and Attorney General Peter Grech. It is being heard before Mr Justice Joseph.R Micallef.

The Canadian financial advisory firm had filed a court application in October 2011asking the court to declare the process to grant the concession to draft Malta’s Individual Investor Programme and to administer the same IIP programme as null, claiming that the process was illegal and abusive. The company had appealed decision taken by the Evaluation Committee but the appeal was refused by the Review Board.

The respondents had filed four exceptions, including that Henley and Partners should have been made a party to the suit, that the former Minister and the Attorney General should be exempted because they were not responsible for the selection process, and that as an applicant, Arton had a contractual agreement preventing it from challenging the decision of the Review Board, which was final and binding.

The court dismissed all exceptions except for the second one and exempted Dr Mallia and Dr Grech from the proceedings. The case will continue.