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Thu 04 Apr 2003Circuit Court cannot rule on law's constitutionality
The Supreme Court has decided that a Circuit Court judge has no jurisdiction to decide the constitutionality of a law which provides a maximum sentence of 10 years' penal servitude for an indecent assault on a male but a two-year prison sentence in the case of a first offence involving a female victim.
The decision arose when the constitutionality of Section 62 of the Offences Against The Person Act 1861 was questioned at Dundalk Circuit Criminal Court by a man charged with 11 offences of indecent assault.
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