Kuwait Court of Cassation principle number 356

Summary: - Issuance of Ministerial Decision 2211/2012 amending certain provisions of Decision 3632/2004 concerning additional allowances and bonuses for military personnel relating to engineers and their assistants, pharmacists and military nurses. Its stipulation that it takes effect from 1/7/2012 without retroactive effect. Establishment that the appellant was retired on 30/1/2012 before issuance of the latter decision. Its consequence. That decision does not apply to him. He is not subject to the provisions of Civil Service Council Decision No. 8/2010 in his capacity as a member of the military. The challenged judgment’s dismissal of his action to annul the negative administrative decision insofar as Decision 2211/2012 did not provide for an increase in the specialization allowance for engineers from 1/4/2010, on a par with engineers working in government entities. Correct. Rule: The first-instance judgment, upheld and supplemented by the challenged judgment, based its dismissal of the action on the fact that Ministerial Decision No. 2211 of 2012 amending certain provisions of Ministerial Decision No. 3632 of 2004 concerning additional allowances and bonuses for military personnel relating to engineers and their assistants, pharmacists and military nurses stipulated that it took effect from 1/7/2012 without retroactive effect. Decision No. 52 of 2012 had been issued in respect of the appellant, retiring him with effect from 30/1/2012, before issuance of the decision in dispute, and it therefore did not apply to him, in addition to Civil Service Council Decision No. 8 of 2010 not applying to him in his capacity as a member of the military. The challenged judgment added that the respondent, in his capacity as chairman of the Committee on Additional Allowances and Bonuses for Military Personnel, promptly contacted the Ministry of Finance and requested that it provide the financial appropriations necessary to implement the latter decision for the military engineers working under him, until he obtained its approval on 20/6/2012. Upon presenting this to the Minister of Defence, the latter issued Decision No. 2211 of 2012 on 1/7/2012. Consequently, the respondent authority spared no effort to achieve equality between these persons and their counterparts among engineers in government entities, thereby rendering its decision free of the defect of abuse or misuse of power. Since the conclusion reached by the judgment was reasonable, had its established basis in the papers and did not contravene the law, the criticism of it on the ground of appeal is unfounded.