Today, on October 14, the Ministry of Justice submitted for public discussion the Draft Law on Amending the Law on Remuneration of Persons Holding Public Positions and Public Service Positions.

As a result of the additions proposed by the draft, the approach of providing a supplement of 50 percent of the official rate to the judges of the Court of Cassation (including the President of the Court of Cassation and the President of the Chamber of the Court of Cassation) in accordance with the law, will also be applied to the President and member of the Supreme Judicial Council.

According to the Ministry of Justice, this is an attempt to eliminate the inconsistency with the provisions of Article 83, part 2 of the Constitutional Law “Judicial Code”, (The remuneration of a member of the Supreme Judicial Council shall be prescribed by law, and it may not be less than the remuneration of a judge of the Court of Cassation).

The justification of the draft, also stated that from the combined study of the provisions of the Law “On Remuneration of Persons Holding Public Positions and Public Service Positions”, it follows that the salary in the sense of the law includes the basic salary, additional salary (includes supplement, bonus) and reward.

Article 3, Part 1, Clause 2, sub-point “a” of the Law “On Remuneration of Persons Holding Public Positions and Public Service Positions” stipulates that the addition shall mean percentage increase calculated in relation to the official pay rate or increase in the official pay rate of a judge of the Court of Cassation (including the President of the Court of Cassation and the President of the Chamber of the Court of Cassation), defined by absolute monetary value preconditioned by the peculiarities of one or several of any conditions referred to in this sub-point, such as performing heavy, harmful, especially heavy and especially harmful works prescribed by the legislation of the Republic of Armenia, working in high mountainous areas, or performing overtime work, work at night-time, on weekends, holidays, as well as of military, penitentiary and rescue services, or particularly risky, as well as due to the specifics of special specialization.

From the wording of Article 3, Part 1, Clause 1 of the Law, it becomes clear that the official rate is the basic salary in the sense of the Law. In accordance with Article 9, Part 1 of the Law, Coefficients for calculating the official pay rate for persons considered as high-ranking officials holding political, discretionary and civil positions shall be prescribed by Annex 1 to the Law.

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Iravaban.net reports that according to Annex 1 of the Law “On Remuneration of Persons Holding Public Positions and Public Service Positions”, the salary of the President of the Supreme Judicial Council is about 1,088,000 AMD; the salary of a member of the Supreme Judicial Council is 816,000 AMD. In case of acceptance of the draft, the salary of the President of the SJC will be 1,632,000 AMD with additional payment, and the salary of the member of the SJC will be 1,224,000 AMD.

It should be noted that the President of the Supreme Judicial Council is Karen Andreasyan , who was elected by the National Assembly a few days ago, on 6, as a member of the Supreme Judicial Council, on 7 October, as the President, and before that he held the position of the Minister of Justice. Deputy Minister of Justice Yeranuhi Tumanyants was elected as a member of the Supreme Judicial Council on 6 October. As we have already reported, Tumanyantsi’s sufficient professional work experience is doubtful.

In the photo, from left to right:

• Member of the Supreme Judicial Council: Yeranuhi Tumanyants
• Acting Minister of Justice: Grigor Minasyan
• Karen Andreasyan, President of the Supreme Judicial Council