The management of New Caledonia's Covid-19 measures will be tested in France's Constitutional Court.
Pro-independence parties challenged the decisions by the French High Commission, arguing that they violated the Noumea Accord which had transferred health care into the domain of the local government.
Advisory over Covid-19 issued in Kanak languages Photo: supplied
The parties raised three alleged violations with France's top administrative court, the Council of State, which decided that only the Constitutional Court was competent in the matter.
A ruling was expected in two months.
The pro-independence parties said since the start of the pandemic the French state infringed on New Caledonia's sovereign power to determine its health policies.
They said under the pretext of a French national emergency, several decrees were issued which took away New Caledonia's powers enshrined in the French constitution.
They said this created a confused situation, prompting the co-signing of decrees by the French High Commissioner and the President of New Caledonia, which they said was unusual and without any basis in law.
While New Caledonia was Covid-19-free, France recorded more than 32,000 pandemic-related deaths.