Law of the Board of Grievances

Purpose and scope

• The Board of Grievances is an independent administrative judiciary reporting directly to the King, based in Riyadh (Article 1); its courts are the High Administrative Court, the administrative courts of appeal and the administrative courts.

Key rules, rights and obligations

• Administrative courts hear cases on employees' rights under the civil service, military service and retirement laws (Article 13).
• They hear claims to annul final administrative decisions for lack of competence, defects of form or cause, breach of the law or abuse of power, and an authority's refusal to take a required decision counts as a decision (Article 13).
• They hear claims for compensation for the administration's decisions and acts, disputes over contracts to which the administration is a party, and disciplinary cases (Article 13).
• The courts sit in circuits of three judges, and an administrative court circuit may be a single judge (Article 9).

Violations, penalties and common problems

• The Board's courts do not hear acts of sovereignty, or objections to judgments of other courts within their own jurisdiction (Article 14 as amended).
• Common problem: filing an annulment claim after the grievance or filing period set in the Board's procedure law has passed.
• Enforcement of foreign judgments now falls to the enforcement judiciary under the current Enforcement Law.

Procedures and key deadlines

• Judgments of the administrative courts of appeal may be challenged before the High Administrative Court on grounds including breach or misapplication of Sharia or the law, or a judgment by a court without jurisdiction (Article 11).
• Where the Board's courts and another body both claim or decline jurisdiction, the question goes to the conflict-of-jurisdiction committee (Article 15).
• Deadlines and procedures are set by the Law of Procedure before the Board of Grievances.

An advisory summary prepared by Al-Bayan Al-Wadih Law Firm. It is not an official text and does not replace the law, its implementing regulations, or advice from a specialised lawyer. The official published text and its amendments prevail.