President Serzh Sargsyan invited a meeting with the participation of the representatives of the RA judicial system

Today, President Serzh Sargsyan invited a meeting with the participation of the representatives of the RA judicial system. At the meeting discussed were issues related to the improvement of the RA Court of Cassation as well as overload of the courts and organization of court proceedings in a reasonable timeframe.

Reports on the mentioned issues were presented by the Chairman of the RA Court of Cassation Arman Mkrtumian, RA Minister of Justice Hrayr Tovmassian, and President of the Chamber of Lawyers Ruben Sahakyan. The President instructed to look more thoroughly into the proposals presented in the reports and to prepare a package of necessary legislative changes.

At the meeting, discussed were issues which impede organization of the proceedings at the courts of first instance in a reasonable timeframe, such as uneven distribution of cases among the courts related to the territorial jurisdiction as well as an uneven distribution of cases among the judges of one particular court.

President Serzh Sargsyan attached special importance to the implementation of the instructions issued during the previous meetings and aimed at the redressing of the raised issues and to their importance in the light of the normal functioning of the courts.

“I have said more than once that any issue related to the normal functioning of the courts commands the most serious attitude. Reservations regarding such issues are simply unacceptable and inexcusable. Efficiency of the courts system can not and must not be related to concrete individuals, or insufficient and careless work.

We have set a clear-cut guide mark: enrooting of the rule of law and justice in every area of our social life. I am confident that we will be able to overcome every hurdle on this route and indifference or excuse for failure will not be tolerated.

The time has come to understand that this process is irreversible and should be kept pace with, or to put it more clearly - those who will not keep pace, have no future.

We are talking about the overload of the courts and speedy conduct of proceeding for the second time. We referred to this problem one year ago, and at that time in the court system were revealed both objective and subjective problems and concrete instructions were given to eliminated them,” President Serzh Sargsyan said. The President underscored that the proceedings should not be expedited at the expense of the quality and hasty decisions shouldn’t be made, at the same time unwarranted prolongations are simply unacceptable.
At the meeting it was noted that subjective reasons which impede organization of the proceedings in a reasonable timeframe have not been totally eliminated and they continue to impact negatively the overload of the courts.

As for the objective reasons, the President instructed to introduce changes in the legislation and based on the statistical data regarding the overload of the judges in a number of courts to increase the number of judges. The heads of relevant structures were instructed to undertake also other legal means in a short period of time to unload the courts.