CONSTITUTIONAL COURT AS RARA AVIS
Support A1+!«One of the guarantees of the independent activity of the CC is the number of the individuals appealing to it. Today we have the status of rara avis», CC member Felix Tokhyan considers.
His viewpoint he conditions by the fact that today Armenia is the only state where a physical person cannot appeal to the CC. «Azerbaijan, for example, adopted the institute of individual complaint in 2002», he noted. To date Armenian citizens can appeal to the European Court however the doors of CC of their own country are closed for them. «Closed not by the Constitution but by the law», Felix Tokhyan noted. The list of individuals able to appeal to the CC would be enlarged. Besides the Ombudsman, the members of the Prosecutor General's Office it should include ordinary citizens and the parliamentary minorities as well.
In Tokhyan's opinion the division of the CC and Administrative justice is a serious problem. “There is am opinion that Armenia is a small country and the body of Administrative justice has little perspective and this function should n\be given to the CC. In my opinion, if the citizens, juridical persons and others will be given the right to appeal to the CC, the latter will sink under the flow of appeals”, Felix Tokhyan says.
He also noted that the CC is the supreme keeper of all the principles of the Constitution including the division of the power branches, political pluralism, functions of the independent court system and so on. “The clause providing for preschedule suspending the authorities of any judge presented in the constitutional draft that was submitted to the referendum in 2003 should be restored. Today's situation does not let us perform our mission efficiently», the CC member said.
Victoria Abrahamyan
