Sudden development in the Egyptian laws over renting agrarian lands

A law allowing the rental of agrarian lands witnessed sudden developments after an Egyptian first degree court referred a judicial contention over the laws to the Higher Constitutional Court to give its decision on the legitimacy of the articles of those laws after three months of application.

The director of the Earth Human Rights Center, Karam Saber, stated that the North Giza Court had accepted two judicial lawsuits which were filed by the center on behalf of tenant farmers who appealed against the constitutional legitimacy of some of the articles in the Agrarian Lands Act that give landlords the right to terminate all contracts signed before the issuance of this act.

He added that the referral to the Higher Constitutional Court was based on the seriousness of the content of the lawsuits, but this does not mean that the act is constitutionally illegal. He clarified that the center had appealed against applying the articles of the act retroactively as the constitution stipulated the consent of two thirds of the parliament members for such retroactive application.