2019-05-27
FOR Communication 20/2019: Transparency of National Council of the Judiciary elections: 7 to 0 for the citizens
- On 27 May 2019, the seventh verdict in favour of transparency was passed. The Provincial Administrative Court in Warsaw ruled that the President of the Supreme Administrative Court had no right to refuse the disclosure of the names of judges from the administrative courts who supported candidates for the new NCJ.
- In March 2018, the ruling majority elected 15 judges to the new National Council of the Judiciary. Candidates, of whom only 18 eventually came forward, could be proposed by groups of at least 2,000 citizens or 25 judges.
- At the moment of the nomination of candidates, NGOs and citizens demanded that the names of judges who supported the members of the new NCJ be made known to the public.
- The Head of the Chancellery of the Sejm, the Minister of Justice and the President of the Supreme Administrative Court consistently refused to disclose the identity of the judges who signed the letters of support.
- At the end of June this year, a hearing in one of the cases in the second instance before the Supreme Administrative Court is planned. The verdict in this case may finally oblige the authorities to disclose the persons who signed the letters of support to the new NCJ.
Author:
Patryk Wachowiec, legal analyst
patryk.wachowiec@for.org.pl
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