ARC, Doha
Answer: Article 458 of the Civil Law stipulates that when the purchaser has taken delivery of the thing sold, he shall ascertain its condition as soon as he is able to do so in accordance with common usage. If the purchaser discovers a defect for which the seller is answerable he must give a reasonable notice thereof to the seller failing which he will be deemed to have accepted the thing sold. If the defects that cannot be discovered by means of normal inspection the purchaser shall, upon the discovery of the defect, at once give notice thereof to the seller failing which he will forfeit his right to the warranty. If the goods are destroyed or damaged by an act of the purchaser, purchaser shall remain liable for payment of the full price thereof.
Employees work over 12 hours a day
Q: According to the Labour Law, what is the total number of hours allowed to work? In our case, the management wants the employees to work more than 12 hours a day. There is no issue with the salary or other payments, but the workload is more. Are they allowed to make employees work for such long hours? Please explain.
JAL, Doha
A: As per Article 73 of Labour Law, the maximum working hours shall be 48 hours per week at the rate of 8 hours per day with the exception of the month of Ramadan when the maximum working hours shall be 36 hours per week at the rate of six hours per day. Break time shall not be taken into consideration in calculating the working hours. Any extra time should be treated as overtime and maximum work a day including overtime shall not exceed 10 hours. The time spent by the worker in transportation to and from the place of work and residence of the worker shall not form part of the working hours. As per Article 74, the workers may be required to work additional hours provided that the actual working hours per day shall not exceed 10 hours unless the work is necessary for the prevention of gross loss or dangerous accident or for the repair or alleviation of the consequences of the said loss or accident.
Legal validity of lease contract
Q: We occupied a building for our business purposes and the lease contract was for three years. Due to some issues, we could not vacate the premises on time and after the lease period, we continued to remain in the premises. We pay the rent on time even after the agreed lease period. In such a case, what will be the legal validity of our lease contract? How the extension affects the security deposit which we had paid initially? Please advise.
AK, Doha
A: As per Article 15 of the Rental Law (Law No. 4 of 2008), if the lessee continues to utilise the leased premises after the end of the term, while the lessor is aware of such utilisation and expresses no objection, the contract shall be deemed to be renewed for a similar term under the same terms and conditions. On such renewal, the security deposit by the lessee in guarantee of the old lease shall be transferred to the new lease.
Punishment for damaging system
Q: We terminated one of our employees because he was not good at his work. After some days we noticed that some of our computer system are not working properly. We believe that the terminated employee did something to damage it. We have some footage in support. If we report to the police, what is the punishment for such acts under the law? Please advise.
JH, Doha
A: According to Article 374 of the Penal Law, whoever intentionally destroys or damages input or output units, computer screen or its components, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years and a fine not exceeding QR10,000. The same penalty shall be imposed on any person who intentionally disables any of the items or makes them inoperable.
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LEGAL SYSTEM IN QATAR
According to Article 103 of Civil and Commercial Procedural law, if there is a reason for the judge to recuse himself and he has not done so, the party may request the judge’s recusal. The recusal application shall be submitted prior to any argument or defence, otherwise the right therein will expire. If the recusal is against a judge deputed for another one, the request shall be submitted within three days from the day of deputing if the decision to depute was issued in the presence of the applicant. If the decision was issued in his absence, then the three days shall start from the date of notification.
The recusal application may be submitted if its reasons have arisen after the prescribed time, or if the applicant proves that he only became aware of the reasons after the expiry of prescribed time limits. In all cases, the right to apply for recusal shall expire, if it is not confirmed prior to the close of pleadings in a previous recusal application in the lawsuit, whenever he is notified of the date fixed for hearing the same, and if the reasons for recusal existed until close of pleadings. The Registry of the court shall submit the recusal report to the presiding judge within 24 hours from the date of lodging the report.
As per Article 108, the judge required to be recused shall reply in writing to the facts and reasons for recusal within four days of being informed of the recusal report. If he does not reply within the specified time to the reasons for recusal or if he admits them in his reply and these reasons legally deserve to be replied to, then, the judge shall issue an order to accept the recusal application and order him to retire. The case shall be suspended until the recusal application is finally determined. Nevertheless, the court may, in emergency cases, and at the request of the other party, depute another judge in the place of the judge required to be recused.
Judgment of the case shall be issued by the majority, and if the majority is not attained and the opinions are split into two or more, then one of the junior judges shall join the senior judges to attain the required majority after taking the opinions for a second time. The judge shall pronounce the judgment by reading its text, or by reading its text along with the reasoning. Pronouncement of the judgment shall be in an open court, otherwise it shall be and void. The judges who participated in the discussion shall attend the pronouncement of the judgment. If one of them is unable to attend, he shall sign the draft of the judgment. In all cases, the draft judgment which includes its reasoning and is signed by the judges at the time of pronouncement shall be deposited at the office of the Registry of court, otherwise it shall be and void.
After the close of pleadings, the court may pronounce the judgment in the hearing. The court may also adjourn the pronouncement of the judgment to another session. If it deems it appropriate to adjourn the pronouncement of judgment to another time, the court shall fix the date for the pronouncing the judgment and the reasons therefore shall be stated in the minutes. The draft judgment containing the text and reasoning shall be kept in the file and no copy shall be issued, but the parties may be allowed to peruse it until the original copy of the judgment is finalised.
