HRA: Members of the Judicial Council exceeded their powers

Action for Human Rights (HRA) believes that the members of the Judicial Council exceeded their powers by making a decision to wait for the decision of the Constitutional Court of Montenegro on the proposal of the Judicial Council for the Constitutional Review of Article 17 Paragraphs 1 and 2 of the Law on Pension and Disability Insurance instead of stating the fact that due to the onset of the conditions for retirement, a significant number of judges have ceased their judicial function, announced today from the HRA.

The HRA added that the Judicial Council announced in the press release from the session of October 7: "Considering the correspondence of certain court presidents in terms of Article 105 of the Law on the Judicial Council and Judges, the Council made a decision by a majority of votes to wait for the decision of the Constitutional Court of Montenegro on to the initiative of the Judicial Council, which submitted the proposal for the assessment of compliance of Article 17 paragraphs 1 and 2 of the Law on Pension and Disability Insurance with the Constitution and confirmed and published international treaties."

The HRA also said that the Constitution of Montenegro stipulates that a judge's office ends, among other things, "when he fulfills the conditions for exercising the right to an old-age pension" (Article 121, paragraph 2).

"Also, the Constitution stipulates in Article 128 paragraph 1 point 6 that the Judicial Council "determines the termination of judicial function". Based on Article 105 paragraph 3 of the Law on the Judicial Council and Judges, the Judicial Council is obliged to pass individual acts on the termination of judicial function for all judges which, on the basis of the current law on pension and disability insurance, it ceased, within 30 days from the date of receipt of the notification by the president of the courts. about the fact that almost 1/3 of the available judicial personnel have met the requirements for retirement, and that according to the aforementioned provision of the Constitution, their judicial function must end," the HRA press release reads.

The HRA stated that they understand that the retirement of a third of the judges represents a significant shock for the judiciary, which is not easy to compensate.

"Also, we believe that the Judicial Council raised before the Constitutional Court a very important issue for achieving equality between women and men. However, regardless of all that, the Judicial Council must not arbitrarily decide not to apply the law, i.e. it must not arbitrarily extend the duration of the judicial function to anyone because by doing so he exceeds his authority and abuses his official position". they said from HRA.

From that NGO, they also said that individual acts passed on the basis of regulations that are found to be unconstitutional can be subsequently amended, that is, their execution can be suspended based on the Law on the Constitutional Court (Articles 66, 67), so, according to them, as they claim, there is absolutely no justification for the Judicial Council to act arbitrarily.

"This is just the latest in a series of examples of the Judicial Council applying regulations in an extremely arbitrary manner. We hope that the legal members of the Council will be replaced as soon as possible by people of integrity who will be ready to ensure the rule of law," the HRA statement concludes.