Kuwait Court of Cassation principle number 908

Competence as one of the elements of an administrative decision. Its nature. That it be issued by a person empowered to issue it. Determining this is the work of the legislature. The decision must be issued by the authority designated by law to issue it; otherwise, it is vitiated by lack of competence. The necessary consequence thereof. The unlawfulness of the decision. - The circumstances and conditions for cancelling a newspaper's licence, suspending it or rejecting it by administrative means, and designation of the authority competent to issue these decisions. Specified by the legislature. The implication thereof. The Minister of Information may only suspend the newspaper for a period not exceeding three months and has no power to cancel its licence. - The rule of parallel competence, whereby whoever has power to issue an administrative decision has power to annul, withdraw and amend it. The criterion for its application. The absence in the legislation of a provision designating the authority competent to annul, withdraw or amend the decision. The reason therefor. - The law's designation of the authority competent to cancel a licence to publish a newspaper or magazine by administrative means, confining it to the Council of Ministers alone, to the exclusion of the Minister of Information. Its effect. The Minister of Information's decision cancelling the licence is issued by an authority without power to issue it and is therefore vitiated by lack of competence and must be annulled. The judgment's adherence thereto. No defect.