IAN BRUCE,
Defence Correspondent
Glasgow Herald
September 30 2005
CAMPAIGNERS fighting to save the threatened King's Own Scottish Borderers promised the battle would go on yesterday after a sheriff ruled that her court was not competent to overturn government decisions.
The regiment's Edinburgh association last week raised a legal challenge over Whitehall's constitutional right to order the disbandment of a unit raised by act of an independent Scottish Parliament seven years before the UK came into being in 1707.
Sheriff Elizabeth Jarvie adjourned the case before Edinburgh Sheriff Court last Thursday after hearing legal argument from campaigners and the Ministry of Defence.
She ruled yesterday that her court was not competent to hear the petition from the veterans and it was a matter for a higher court to decide.
A spokesman for the campaigners said later:
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"The fight goes on. We haven't even touched first base as yet. The substance of our case has not been heard. Last week was about legal competence and nothing more.
Nothing has changed. We have a number of options open to us and we will be pursuing our challenge all the way. The sheriff said it was an issue for judicial review at a higher level.
This is neither a defeat nor a setback, but merely a step in a process which we had anticipated."
The association has the ultimate choice of taking the case before the Court of Session, Scotland's highest judicial authority, for a ruling. The MoD's agent argued last week that it was beyond the authority of a Scottish sheriff to declare any Whitehall decision illegal.
The veterans' action has already played a major role in postponing the planned formation of the controversial Royal Regiment of Scotland on St Andrew's Day, November 30, this year.
The army has now scheduled the event for March 31. Further delay or a legal decision in favour of the campaigners could force another cancellation.
The MoD announced last year that the six existing Scottish infantry regiments were to merge into a single, "large regional regiment" as part of an overall restructuring of forces.
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