The president of the Constitutional Tribunal, Julia Przyłębska, canceled the Tuesday date of the hearing on the dispute over powers between the president and the Supreme Court. “10 of the 15 judges present at the Constitutional Court today attended the meeting and the hearing,” she said. This means that the full composition of the Tribunal was not required.
after Tuesday at noon, President Przyłębska left the courtroom along with nine other judges of the Constitutional Court.
At that time, at the request of the Marshal of the Sejm, a hearing was to be held in a case of a dispute of jurisdiction between the President of the Republic of Poland and the Supreme Court. 10 of the 15 judges present at the Constitutional Court today attended the meeting and the hearing. In this state of affairs, I have decided to cancel today’s court date and a new date will be set ex officio
said Przyłębska.
For several months now, a dispute has been going on in the Constitutional Tribunal over the term of office of Julia Przyłębska as President of the Tribunal, which has prevented the Tribunal from meeting fully recently.
What is the dispute about?
The dispute over powers between the President and the Supreme Court is related to the non-final verdict against Mariusz Kamiński and other persons from the former management of the CBA and the pardon by President Andrzej Duda of the non-finally convicted former heads of the CBA. At the beginning of March, the press team of the Supreme Court informed the PAP that on June 6 this year, The Supreme Court set the date of the cassation hearing in the trial of the former heads of the CBA.
The case of the dispute over jurisdiction was referred to the Tribunal in June 2017, at the request of the then Marshal of the Sejm, Marek Kuchciński.
This case has a history of almost ten years. In March 2015, Warszawa-Śródmieście District Court sentenced in first instance the former head of the CBA, Kamiński (today the head of the Ministry of Interior and Administration) and Maciej Wąsik (Kamiński’s deputy in the CBA at that time; currently Deputy Minister of Home Affairs and Administration) to 3 years imprisonment, among other things for exceeding competence and unlawful management of the CBA during the “country scandal” in 2007. Two other former members of the CBA management were sentenced to prison terms after 2.5 years.
poster Before the district court in Warsaw examined their appeal, President Duda pardoned all four unlawfully convicted in November 2015. In March 2016, the SO overturned the SR’s verdict and, given the President’s clemency, legally discontinued the case. The assistant public prosecutors have lodged an appeal in cassation with the Supreme Court against this judgment of the Supreme Court.
However, the cassation proceedings at the Supreme Court in this case were suspended on August 1, 2017. The Supreme Court then motivated its decision by filing a case of a jurisdictional dispute between the Supreme Court and the President on the right of pardon by the Constitutional Court.
The case of the dispute over powers, which was referred to the Constitutional Tribunal by Marshal Kuchciński in June 2017, concerns the nature of the power of the president described in the constitution to apply the pardon law and whether the Supreme Court can give a binding interpretation from the.
The issue of the jurisdictional dispute arose following the ruling of the Supreme Court at the end of May 2017. At that time, seven judges of the Supreme Court – in response to a question from the Supreme Court that the former heads of cassation of the CBA – decided that the presidential pardon should only be applied to legally convicted persons. The former heads of the CBA have not been legally convicted.
After the dispute over powers was referred to the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court suspended the proceedings. However, in February and March The Supreme Court has reportedly started the cassation procedure ex officio. The adjournment of the case paved the way for a Supreme Court date to be set for June 6.
Meanwhile, a dispute has been going on for several months in the Constitutional Tribunal over the term of office of Julia Przyłębska as President of the Tribunal, which has prevented the Tribunal from meeting fully recently.
The dispute is related to the fact that according to some lawyers, including former and current judges of the Constitutional Court, Przyłębska’s term of office as President of the Constitutional Court expired after 6 years, i.e. on December 20, 2022, and at the same time, she cannot then apply again to this function. According to Przyłębska herself, as well as Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and some experts, her term of office will expire in December 2024 – with the end of Przyłębska’s term as judge of the Constitutional Tribunal.
Six judges of the Constitutional Tribunal, including Vice President Mariusz Muszyński, sent a letter to Julia Przyłębska and the president in January, demanding that she convene the General Assembly of Judges of the Constitutional Tribunal and select candidates from which the president will choose a appoint a new chairman. At the beginning of March, the press service of the Constitutional Tribunal reported that President Przyłębska had convened the General Assembly of Tribunal judges, which “adopted by an absolute majority, in the presence of two-thirds of the Tribunal judges, a resolution stating that there was no reason to convene a meeting to select candidates for president of the tribunal.”
The question of President Przyłębska’s term of office is raised mainly in connection with another case which has been referred by the plenary session of the Constitutional Court for May 30 following the request of the President under preventive scrutiny regarding the amendment of the Law on the Supreme Court. According to the authors, the introduction of this amendment is intended to reach an important “milestone” regarding the rule of law for the European Commission to release money for the national reconstruction plan.
Last week a PiS bill was submitted to the Sejm tasked – as stated in the explanatory memorandum – with streamlining the operation of the Tribunal by reducing the minimum number of members of the General Assembly from 2/3 of the judges of the Tribunal (i.e. 10 Judges) to 9 and the full composition of the Tribunal from 11 to 9 Judges. The amended provisions apply to proceedings initiated and not completed before the date of entry into force of the amendment. According to reports, the parliamentary committee will deal with it in the second half of May.
At the end of April, President Przyłębska said on Polish Radio’s Channel Three that she hopes that “at the hearing scheduled for May 30, the Constitutional Tribunal will be able to settle the case, or at least start proceedings regarding the amendment of the law on the Supreme Court.”
Before this happens, shortly after the picnic – May 9 – the date of the jurisdictional dispute hearing is set
she noted.
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WKT/PAP
Source: wPolityce