Administrative Court: The decision to award the July Thirteenth Award is not an administrative act

The Administrative Court dismissed the lawsuit filed by Dragan Hajduković against the jury's decision to award this year's Thirteenth of July Award.

The contested decision awarded the annual state award to classical guitarist Miloš Karadaglic, writer Bećir Vuković, and academic graphic artist Veljo Stanišić.

The Administrative Court ruled that Hajduković's lawsuit was inadmissible.

As stated in the announcement published on the court's website, according to the provisions of Article 2 of the Law on Administrative Disputes (ZUS), it is prescribed that in an administrative dispute, the court decides on the legality of an administrative act and other administrative activity that determines or otherwise affects the rights, obligations and legal interests of a natural or legal person, when so prescribed by law.

The Court pointed out that, according to the cited provision, it follows that this concerns the adoption of administrative acts that, through the direct application of regulations, resolve the rights, obligations and legal interests of a particular party, in administrative matters.

"Resolving matters through an administrative act or administrative activity, which must also ultimately result in the adoption of an act, implies changing the individual legal situation of natural or legal persons or other parties in relation to the situation that existed before the initiation of the procedure," the statement says.

It is emphasized that, in an administrative-procedural sense, one of the basic characteristics of an administrative act is its resolving character for an individual situation, i.e. deciding on the rights and legal interests of a legal subject, through the direct application of substantive regulations, based on public powers in administrative matters.

The Administrative Court concluded that this was not the case in this case.

"The decision to award the July Thirteenth State Award for this year is not an administrative act or other administrative activity within the meaning of Article 2 of the ZUS, because it did not decide on any right of the plaintiff or his legally based interest, on which he could acquire the right to file a lawsuit," the statement states.

In making its decision, the Administrative Court referred to the practice of that court from May 17, 2019 and the judgment of the Supreme Court of Montenegro from October 17 of the same year.