ST.-PETERSBURG, October 1 - RAPSI. The Constitutional Court began considering whether regional authorities can independently create public offices on Monday.

The court will hold a compliance check of Article 10(2) of the Federal Law On Civil Service.

The check has been necessitated by an inquiry filed by the Kamchatka Territory legislature, which adopted a regional law establishing several public offices in 2008.

The law was challenged by the prosecutor's office on the grounds that the new law contradicts the federal law, stating that the list of regional officials should correspond to the list of federal offices.

The territorial court sided with the prosecutors and the Supreme Court later upheld the ruling.

The applicants were absent in court on Monday. Earlier, the court's press service said the applicant believes that civil service matters should be regulated jointly by the regional and the central authorities, but the organization of regional offices falls under the jurisdiction of the regional government.