Montenegro allocates millions of euros from its budget for severance pay, but that is still not enough of an alarm for the state to regulate this issue differently by law. Thus, we have a situation where the Parliament approves that judges of the Constitutional Court who are retiring because they are 67 years old and have 40 years of service receive another year of compensation, even though they have all the conditions for retirement.
On the other hand, the Judicial and Prosecutorial Council, and subsequently the courts, reject other judges and prosecutors in the same legal situation. HRA recently pointed out that no one in the region is as generous in terms of compensation as Montenegro.
When you work, you receive an official salary. After you leave office, some people continue to receive the same amount of money for another year.
However, what belongs to the judges of the Constitutional Court who have acquired the right to a pension, now does not belong to other judges and prosecutors in the Montenegrin judiciary, because they are regularly rejected by the Judicial and Prosecutorial Councils, and then by the courts after the lawsuits are filed. This is the case with the former president of the Nikšić Basic Court, Vukot Vujačić.
The Supreme Court also held that the fact that an official does not want to contact the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund to receive a pension, but wants compensation that can sometimes be twice as high, does not mean that he is entitled to it. This is what it decided in the case of former Supreme State Prosecutor Ivica Stanković.
Despite this position of the highest courts, the Parliament has its own practice, even though judges of the Constitutional Court are in an identical legal situation as, for example, judges of the Appellate or Supreme Courts.
The Human Rights Action recently pointed out that no country in the region provides this right to judicial office holders to the same extent as in Montenegro. Although Šćepanović left the Constitutional Court because he turned 67 and had 40 years of service, that is, because he met the conditions for retirement, his request to the Parliament for approval of an official's compensation shows that he will still have to earn his living.
Numerous legal interpreters are among those who wear the judicial robe, and court practice has changed accordingly. As has happened countless times before, it turns out that even for the realization of a right there must be a luck factor.
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