The High Court of Justice rejected Monday a request by the Knesset to postpone deliberations on a petition that seeks to annul a law allowing private companies to operate prisons in Israel.

The Knesset tried to convince a panel of nine justices that it intends to hold a public discussion on the overall implications - economic, social and administrative - of the general processes of privatization in the country.

A petition was filed by the Ramat Gan Law School, which argued that the license given to the billionaire Lev Leviev to build and operate a private prison contravenes the Basic Law on Government. The petitioners say the licensing gives a private firm clear powers of governance, including the use of force and the denial of liberty.

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Leviev's prison is being constructed near Be'er Sheva and is expected to receive inmates in June 2009.

A year ago the Knesset asked to participate as a respondent to the petition, and asked to postpone the deliberations - which were scheduled to take place in late August 2006.

The justices accepted the Knesset's argument that two bills against privatizing prisons, by MK Shelly Yachimovich (Labor) and Dov Hanin (Hadash), were pending and it was necessary to allow the legislators to deliberate and then vote.

In late February, the state and the Knesset asked the court for yet another delay, arguing that although the two bills were rejected in votes, another bill was still pending.

The situation was complicated by the fact that MK Nadia Hilu and MK Michael Melchior, who had propsed the bill, withdrew after the two previous bills were voted down.

In mid-March, Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik called on the general public to present the Knesset with position papers on the implications of privatizing prisons, which would be discussed during the summer session.

But the explanation filed by the Knesset legal counselor, Nurit Elstein, to the High Court last week said that a discussion of dozens of position papers sent to the Knesset has not been possible due to the legislature's busy agenda in recent months. Elstein said the Knesset plans to hold a series of discussions during its winter session that are expected to be concluded by March 2008.

"The Knesset request is not an innocent one," says attorney Gilad Barnea, representing the petitioners. "Its purpose is to bring the court in direct confrontation with the Knesset over the right to legislate laws."

Yachimovich added: "Each day that goes by bolsters Lev Leviev's hold on the prison he owns and creates an irreversible situation in which the power to jail, punish, supervise and rehabilitate are in the hands of tycoons."