The plenum of the Supreme Court The Judicial Council (JSC) issued its position regarding its constitutionally established powers to elect the Chief Prosecutor of Bulgaria and the President of the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC).
„The Supreme Judicial Council is a constitutionally established body, in whose powers is the obligation to make a proposal to the President of the Republic within the mandatory time frames defined by law for the appointment and dismissal of the President of the Supreme Court of Cassation, the President of the Supreme Administrative Court and the Prosecutor General”, the position says.
„The Supreme Court of Justice implements all its legal powers equally strictly, among which are the election of administrative heads of the bodies of the judiciary, the appointment and dismissal of magistrates, including senior magistrate positions, etc.”, the plenum adds.
According to the Supreme Judicial Council, the calls of recent days by representatives of the other authorities and NGOs not to hold or to suspend the open procedures for the election of the President of the Supreme Court and the Chief Prosecutor are essentially requests to the Supreme Court to directly violate the Basic Law and to show legal voluntarism, which is unacceptable and would raise the question of the responsibility of the members of the council.
„The principle of the rule of law requires that in cases where the representatives of the other authorities and constitutional bodies find it inexpedient to implement certain legal powers of the SJC, to initiate an amendment or repeal of the law, or to exercise other means recognized by the law for obstructing this implementation“, it is also written in the position of the SJC.
„Legal norms by definition are a reflection of the prevailing morality in society and therefore the implementation of the constitutionally established powers of the SJC cannot be immoral. Everything else is a demonstration of legal nihilism and a double standard, which invisibly destroys the legal order and allows the feeling of lawlessness to multiply in every part of society”, the personnel noted.
According to them, it is remarkable the fact that in 2023, when the SJC opened a procedure for early termination of the mandate of the Prosecutor General, there were no objections to the council's illegitimacy and moral integrity.
„The failure of the decades-long statutory judicial reform cannot be attributed to the SJC and the judiciary, which tend to and incessantly treat as the necessary culprit for the failure of any attempt to “reshape” the system according to the views of one or another social group, without looking for the real reasons for the problems in the work of the judicial bodies”, the plenum states in its position.
„The suggestions about the lack of moral integrity and illegitimacy of the composition of the council, about dependence on the political situation, etc., are clearly part of the political rhetoric in the conditions of regular early parliamentary elections, but they represent a gross and unprincipled interference in the independence of the judicial system“, added the personnel.
And they recall that the functioning of the current composition of the SJC under the conditions of an expired mandate is not the fault of the SJC, which, according to them, fulfilled its obligations and held an election of members from the judicial quota in 2022.
„But due to the lack of members of the council elected by the National Assembly from the parliamentary quota, it continues to function and this was recognized by the Constitutional Court as an “improper extension” of the mandate, as a “protective mechanism …to continue the activity of the state body” and “a permissible way to prevent a de facto change in the balance of the powers and organs of the state provided for by the Constitution”, the position reads.
The Supreme Judicial Council emphasizes that the decisions of the Constitutional Court are binding for all legal entities in Bulgaria.
„We appeal to the representatives of the other authorities and all constitutionally established state bodies not to cross the boundaries of the legal order and in the battle for the supremacy of their own causes not to render meaningless the basic principles of the functioning of the legal state, because this is a boomerang for everyone us“, call the personnel in conclusion.