Kuwait Court of Cassation principle number 1722

The administrative authority's refusal to take a decision that it was required to take, whether rejecting or approving, pursuant to laws and regulations. It may be challenged by annulment as a negative decision. - The provisions of Articles 17, 19 of Law No. 11/1962 concerning passports. Their import: the grant of a passport is inseparably linked to Kuwaiti nationality. The consequence thereof. The administrative authority must express its will through a positive decision whenever it decides to refuse issuance of a passport, stating the particular reasons that prompted it. - Proof that the respondent is a Kuwaiti national, the administrative authority's failure at any stage of the dispute to invoke any other public-interest justification warranting depriving him of obtaining a passport, and its failure to issue a decision to that effect. He must legally obtain it. The administrative authority is obliged to issue it without any discretionary power whatsoever in that regard. Its refusal constitutes a negative decision. It may be challenged by annulment without being bound by a time limit. The challenged judgment's agreement with the first-instance judgment in ascertaining the true nature and character of the administrative decision, considering the decision sought to be annulled a negative decision not subject to a time limit, and consequently ruling that the action was admissible in form. This does not violate the law.