Former rector Nikolić illegally dismissed

The basic court in Podgorica accepted the lawsuit of the former rector in a first-instance verdict Danil Nikolić and annulled as illegal the decision of the Board of Directors of the University of Montenegro because they did not comply with all legal steps before, in February 2021, they dismissed him from office.

By the judge's verdict Dijane Dragišić Radojević Nikolić's claims that the Board of Directors should not have dismissed him were confirmed, without a prior statement from the Senate on the initiative for his dismissal, as prescribed by Article 55 paragraph 4 of the Statute of the University of Montenegro.

The case of rector Nikolić completely coincides with the method of dismissal of the former rector Radmile Vojvodic, when a legally binding court decision took the position that the decision on dismissal could be made without a prior statement from the Senate, but only in the event that the Senate session was not scheduled within a reasonable time, which was not the case...

Former rector Danilo Nikolić was dismissed on February 12, 2021, when five members of the Management Board - Vladimir Božović, Budimir Aleksić, Milena Burić, Milena Šekularac i Danilo Banović, at the session submitted an initiative for his dismissal, which they justified by a series of objections to his work.

They stated that during his leadership, freedom of thought and expression, i.e. academic freedom, was allegedly restrained, and that the principle of equality, fairness, but also violations of legality and norms of the UCG Statute were violated. In the Initiative, they also stated that the University's relationship with representatives of civil society is significantly damaged, as well as that there is no public trust in the correctness and legality of the work of the UCG...

On that day, Nikolić asked to allow him to schedule a session of the Senate as soon as possible, but the Board of Directors did not accept his request, and the vote was organized without obtaining a statement from the Senate.

"The court started from the provision of Article 55 of the Statute of the University of Montenegro, which stipulates that the initiative to dismiss the rector can be submitted by the Senate, or five members of the Board of Directors, with a written explanation and submission to the rector for a statement. "Furthermore, paragraph 4 defines that the Senate will decide on the initiative of the Board of Directors to dismiss the rector, as well as that, in the event that the Senate session is not scheduled within a reasonable time, the Board of Directors will consider the initiative and make a decision without the Senate's decision," the verdict reads.

In the explanation, the court stated that in the dismissal procedure, all the stipulated conditions were not met, which is why the decision of the Management Board of UCG was "annulled as illegal".

"In order for the decision to dismiss the rector to be legal, in addition to the material and legal conditions, the procedural and legal elements should also be met, that is, the decision should be made in a legally conducted procedure," the verdict reads.

Nikolić's lawyer Miloš Vukčević he told "Vijesti" that the court confirmed that without the statement of the UCG Senate on the initiative to dismiss the rector, the prerequisites for making a decision were not met.

"The court correctly concludes that the decision is illegal, that is contrary to Article 55 paragraph 4 of the Statute of the UCG. The verdict represents a victory for the rule of law over the Board of Directors of the UCG and sends a clear message that the Board of Directors does not have unlimited powers to dismiss rectors whenever they feel like it, but that they must abide by the law, that is, respect the Statute of the UCG, which is there to limit their powers. The verdict sends a message that the role of the Senate should not be minimized, because it is a body made up of professors and whose opinion is important for the Board of Directors to hear when making such major decisions as the dismissal of the rector," said Vukčević.

He emphasized that he hopes that after this verdict the Management Board of UCG will "start to respect the procedure prescribed by Article 55 paragraph 4 of its Statute and ask for a statement from the Senate when it next dismisses the rector".

Nikolić was elected rector for the first time in 2017, after the Board of Directors dismissed the then rector Radmila Vojvodić, and his second term was supposed to last until the middle of 2023.