1 / 4

At November 10 of the NA Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs, the NA deputy Aram Vardevanyan proposed the draft law on Making Addenda to the Code of Administrative Procedure for debate in the first reading.

The draft law proposes to unload the RA Administrative Court of Appeal and the RA Court of Cassation. The amount of the fine under discussion for submitting an appeal to the Court of Appeal or the Court of Cassation is 500.000 AMD.

Aram Vardevanyan noted that one of the functions of the administrative bodies is to decide on fines, but it often becomes an end in itself. The Administrative Court, examining complaints, often decides to declare them invalid. According to the legislative proposal, if the citizen wins in the Administrative Court in case of appealing the fine, then the process will end and the case will no more be examined in the appellate and cassation instances.

The deputies referred to the disputable circumstances of the regulation proposed by the draft law. An opinion has been voiced that the purpose to unload the courts by this proposal will not become a reality, the regulation can become a base for new misuses.

The Committee Chair Vladimir Vardanyan proposed to postpone the debate of the issue aimed at revising it.

In his co-report, Artur Davtyan offered to vote against the draft. The deputy is sure that the set threshold for the amount of the fine should be justified.

Presenting the viewpoint of the Government, the RA First Deputy Minister of Justice Kristinne Grigoryan has stated that the executive body sees a risk of some deformation of the three-tier judicial system in the draft. According to her, the proposal is disputable in the context of both the constitutional status of the Court of Cassation, and the practice of decisions of the Constitutional Court (CC) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). It has been underlined that the restriction of the right of the administrative body to appeal in the envisaged cases may impede the implementation of the constitutional function of the Court of Cassation to ensure the uniform application of laws and other normative-legal acts.

As a result, the bill received a negative conclusion of the Committee.