Thu 04 Apr 2003Circuit Court cannot rule on law's constitutionalityThe 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.