Speaker Anglu Farrugia has been asked to deliver a ruling over a motion to suspend the discussion on Justyne Caruana's ethic's breach within the Standards Committee.

Commissioner for Standards in Public Life George Hyzler had found that the awarding of a €15,000 contract to Daniel Bogdanovic by Education Minister Justyne Caruana amounted to an "abuse of power" by the Education Minister. The Standards Committee had adopted the report. Caruana resigned as Education Minister.

Since then, Caruana has filed a legal case challenging the constitutional validity of the law whereby she was targeted for investigation by the Standards Commissioner.

The Standards Committee met on Tuesday to continue discussing the report, and will eventually decide on what kind of sanctions to impose, if any, against Caruana.

However, a debate erupted in the committee as to whether or not to proceed, or suspend until the Constitutional case concludes.

Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis and PL Whip Glenn Bedingfield wanted to table a motion asking the committee to consider the suspension of proceedings, until the court notifies of a decision on the recently filed constitutional case.

The PL representatives argued that it would be prudent to proceed with caution on this issue, since the committee had not faced such a situation in the past. The PN MPs, however, argued that the courts have not issued any decree ordering the committee to suspend or halt its proceedings.

Zammit Lewis also stressed the point that Caruana had already resigned as a minister.

PN MP Karol Aquilina pointed out that there is no legal basis to accept the motion presented by Edward Żammit Lewis and Glenn Bedingfield. He also insinuated that the PL MPs want the committee to stop meeting due to the upcoming election.

PN MP Therese Comidini Cachia insisted that if the committee were to stop its discussion process, it would be creating a precedent, which could send out an unwanted message that if any person wants the committee to stop, they just need to file a constitutional case stating that the meetings could hinder their rights. Secondly, she noted, that when everyday citizens filed constitutional cases against a certain law, that same law did not stop being used just because it was being challenged in court, thus the case filed by Justyne Caruana should not have any different outcome.

Speaker Anglu Farrugia asked Commissioner for Standards in Public life George Hyzler if he was still willing to answer questions by the same committee given the Commissioner's inclusion in the court case.

In response, Hyzler said that he was not comfortable answering questions relating to the procedure he used to investigate allegations made against Justyne, but was ok to answer other questions. Bedingfield had said that he has questions about the procedure.

The Speaker will now have to deliver a ruling on the motion by the PL MPs.