Judges allowed to appeal the decisions rendered by Supreme Judicial Council; Minister Grigor Minasyan presents draft in the National Assembly

Minister of Justice Grigor Minasyan presented the package of the draft Constitutional Law “On the Judicial Code of the Republic of Armenia” to the Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs of the National Assembly.

The aim of the draft is to create a legal possibility to appeal the decisions of the Supreme Judicial Council in relation to the issues of subjecting a judge to disciplinary liability and terminating the powers of the judge.

It is envisaged that a composition including 4 members of the Supreme Judicial Council will examine the issue of subjecting the judge to disciplinary liability. The specified composition of the Supreme Judicial Council examining the issue of subjecting a judge to disciplinary liability, shall vary in all disciplinary proceedings and shall include two members elected by the General Assembly of Judges and the National Assembly, respectively.

Examination of the appeal lodged against the decision on the issue of subjecting a judge to disciplinary liability shall be carried out by the Supreme Judicial Council jointly with the composition of the members not included in the composition examining the issue of subjecting the judge to disciplinary liability under the specified disciplinary proceedings.

Grigor Minasyan mentioned that a two-month period has been envisaged for examination of the appeal, as a result of which the Supreme Judicial Council will be able to abolish the decision on subjecting a judge to disciplinary liability or reject the motion on subjecting the judge to disciplinary liability or to impose another type of disciplinary penalty or to abolish the decision on rejecting the motion on subjecting the judge to disciplinary liability and to subject the judge to disciplinary liability and leave the decision unchanged.

At the same time, as the main rapporteur, the Minister informed that upon adoption of the Draft by the National Assembly in the first reading, the Government of the Republic of Armenia submitted, in writing, proposals to make amendments and clarifications in the Draft; in particular, it was proposed to:

1. Clarify the procedure for the Chairperson of the Supreme Judicial Council to convene and conduct sessions with regard to the issues on subjecting a judge to disciplinary liability, terminating the powers of the judge, the appeals against the decisions on subjecting a judge to disciplinary liability and on terminating the powers of the judge;
2. Envisage that the body instituting disciplinary proceedings is not restricted by legal grounds and justifications (presented in the report) while instituting and conducting proceedings;
3. Envisage that in case of combining disciplinary proceedings, the decision on this shall be sent to the persons having submitted the report;
4. Clarify the procedure for making decisions based on the results of the examination of the appeal against the decision on the issue of subjecting a judge to disciplinary liability, etc. supplemented in the Draft.

Adoption of the Draft arises from the recommendation incorporated in GRECO's 2015 Evaluation Report and reaffirmed in the 2021 Interim Report, according to which the legislation of the Republic of Armenia still does not allow appealing the decisions on subjecting judges to disciplinary liability, and the conclusion is that the recommendation with regard to this remains unimplemented. The solutions proposed under the Draft are currently the only possible solutions which may be compromising, without contradicting the constitutional regulations, which the Venice Commission mentioned in its Opinion.