A new, sixth member of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) was sworn in on Monday, enabling the state body overseeing Armenia’s courts to make a quorum and hold formal meetings.
The SJC, which was established in March 2018, had nine members until the May 24 resignation of its first chairman, Gagik Harutiunian. The latter cited “ongoing developments relating to the judicial authority” and his “concerns expressed in that regard.”
Harutiunian’s temporary replacement, Gevorg Danielian, stepped down on June 7. Three other members of the SJC followed suit in the next few days.
The resignations effectively paralyzed the work of the judicial watchdog just as Armenia’s government and parliament controlled by it continued to push for a sweeping reform of the national judiciary.
The National Assembly swiftly filled two of the vacancies in the SJC. The new council members elected by it are lawyer Grigor Bekmezian and former Deputy Justice Minister Vigen Kocharian. They both were nominated by the ruling My Step alliance.
Kocharian formally began performing his duties on Monday, raising to 6 the current number of the SJC members. The SJC is thus able to meet and make some decisions affecting the judiciary.
But it is still not allowed to take disciplinary action against judges. The Armenian Judicial Code stipulates that SJC meetings making such decisions must be at attended by at least 7 members.
Under the code, the SJC must have 10 members. Half of them are appointed by the parliament while the other half are chosen by the country’s judges.
As things stand now, the parliament can pick one more member of the SJC, with the remaining three seats in the council reserved for the judges.
The SJC’s acting head, Sergey Chichoyan, has written to the chairman of Armenia’s Court of Cassation, Yervand Khundkarian, asking him to organize a conference of judges for the purpose of electing the three new SJC members. A spokeswoman for Khundkarian said on Monday that the conference will likely be held within a month.
Meanwhile, both Bekmezian and Kocharian expressed readiness to assist in the judicial reform in their new capacity. Bekmezian said the SJC can operate much more effectively even before a mandatory vetting of all judges planned by the authorities.
Bekmezian also spoke out against the resignation of four other SJC members who were appointed under the previous Armenian government.“I don’t think they must go because I spoke to them and am sure that they too are committed to reforming the system,” he said.
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