Attorney Gorg Gyozalyan asked a question to Grigor Bekmezyan, Hayk Hovhannisyan and Mesrop Makyan, members of the Supreme Judicial Council and the Minister of Justice Rustam Badasyan, through a Facebook post.
Grigor Bekmezyan and Hayk Hovhannisyan responded.
“Based on what principle are the judges of the regions transferred to the court of Yerevan? Why are the newly graduated judges always been sent to the regions?” Is this policy transparent and not covered by “acquaintance-friend”, “good dad-mom”, “other opportunities” or “politics”? For example, I know a judge who has applied to move to Yerevan since time immemorial, because the family is here, but has been rejected. I also know judges who, without any obstacles (for example, in 2011 was appointed a judge of the Lori region, and in 2016 moved to Yerevan or was appointed a judge of the Lori region in 2016 and in 2018 moved to Yerevan) appeared in Yerevan in a few years. They conduct trials in such a way that you sincerely regret that you are a lawyer.
RECOMMENDATION: If you are really concerned about the authority of the judiciary, make the process of transferring TRANSPARENT to the maximum so that people understand exactly what merits this judge came to Yerevan for, went to the Court of Appeal or the Court of Cassation.”
In response to the post, Hayk Hovhannisyan noted that the attorney raises a legitimate question. “I have said the same thing 1000 times,” said the SJC member.
Grigor Bekmezyan, another member of the SJC, noted that he had raised this issue. He referred to the law, noting, “According to Article 119 of the Judicial Code:
- In exceptional cases, including in the cases of existence of family and personal circumstances hindering to hold the office, the judge of a court of first instance shall have the right to apply to the Supreme Judicial Council out of the turn specified by Article 115 of this Code, with a request of appointing him or her to the position of a judge of another court of first instance in case a vacant position of a judge of relevant specialization opens up at the court of first instance concerned.
- The judge submitting the application must indicate in the application justified reasons for the transfer.”
In addition, Bekmezyan said that since his joining the SJC in 2019, it has been his principled approach to maintain the requirement of the Code as much as possible, excluding the possibility of getting closer to a friend or relative.
“I should mention that the latest appointments prove that the Council complies with the requirements of the Code. In any case, I agree that the wording is not clear, so I want to inform you that Armen Haykyants and I are already working on a draft amendment to the article, which will further clarify the transfer process,” Grigor Bekmezyan added.
