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At January 11 sitting of the NA Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs, the legislative package on Making Amendments and Addenda to the Constitutional Law on the RA Judicial Code and on Making Addenda to the RA Criminal Procedure Code authored by the NA deputies Vladimir Vardanyan and Vahagn Hovakimyan was debated in the first reading.

Vladimir Vardanyan has noted that the revised version of the package is presented. The purpose of the proposed regulations is to ensure the effective conduct of the judicial review of cases, the proper realization of the rights and legal interests of their participants, the provision of the requirement to examine and resolve cases within reasonable time, the strengthening of institutional guarantees for normal functioning of the courts.

The restriction of the exercise of the rights is planned as a separate type of judicial sanction, which is proposed to be applied by the court in cases when the participant of the trial, while exercising his procedural rights, regularly abuses them, endangering the guarantee for the protection of the rights of other participants in the trial and the provision of the interest of justice.

It is proposed to endow the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) with the authorisation to ensure the normal functioning of the courts, providing that the SJC will have the right to adopt normative legal acts in the direction of the realization of the latter. The SJC judge-members are offered to apply a 95% reduction instead of a 75% reduction in the distribution of cases, which will promote the reduction of their workload and the increase of the efficiency of the activities.

In his co-report, Artur Davtyan called on the deputies to vote in favor of it. The deputy has clarified that the restriction of exercising the right will be applied in case of regular abuse of the procedural rights by the participant of the trial. According to him, there will be no restriction of the right by applying the envisaged judicial sanction.

The RA Deputy Minister of Justice Yeranuhi Tumanyants presented the viewpoint of the Government and suggested to vote in favor of it.

During the debate, they particularly referred to the provision on the abuse of the procedural rights by the participant in the trial, the expediency of a 95% reduction in the distribution of cases of the SJC judge-members, and the conduct of a fair trial.

The Committee endorsed the initiative.