Principle 6 - Jurisdiction - Principles of the Supreme Administrative Court

Facts

Reasons

Whereas the contestation has fulfilled all its procedural conditions as the judgment was issued on 2/4/1439 AH and the delivery date was set on 23/4/1439 AH, and the plaintiff submitted his objection on 6/5/1439 AH; thus, it was submitted within the statutory deadline. And since the plaintiff, by proxy, bases his objection on the judgment's violation of the law, and this reason is among the grounds that permit objection before the court administrative High according to Article Eleven of the Law of the Board of Grievances, and since the judgment under objection relied in its ruling on the reasons of the Sixth Administrative Circuit judgment, whose conclusion is that the issue of jurisdiction is of public order and may be raised at any stage of the judiciary, and the circuit may examine it ex officio even if the parties to the case do not raise it; and because the Equestrian Club Law stipulates in its first chapter the definition of the Equestrian Club as a sports, cultural, and social institution of public benefit sponsored by the state and subject to the applicable laws and regulations. Article Thirteen of the Law of the Board of Grievances states the jurisdiction of the Board, especially paragraph (b) thereof, which provides for its jurisdiction over: "the annulment of final decisions submitted by concerned parties whenever the appeal reference is..., and the decisions issued by public benefit associations and their equivalents related to their activities." And since the dispute, as mentioned in the facts, relates to a contractual dispute, it falls outside the scope of that provision; considering that Article (13/b) is specific to the annulment of decisions issued by public benefit associations, whereas the dispute is contractual, and the contract concluded with any of the public associations is not an administrative contract subject to the jurisdiction of the administrative courts. Therefore, the correctness and soundness of the judgment under objection in its conclusion that the courts of the Board of Grievances do not have jurisdiction to adjudicate the dispute related to the contract concluded between the Equestrian Club in Riyadh and the company (...), which necessitates rejecting the objection of the Equestrian Club in Riyadh to the judgment of the Fourth Administrative Circuit of the Administrative Court of Appeal in Riyadh, which affirmed the judgment of the Sixth Administrative Circuit of the Administrative Court in Riyadh. Accordingly, the court ruled: to accept the objection of the Equestrian Club in Riyadh formally, and reject it substantively. And God is the grantor of success, and may peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad and his family and companions all.