Ruling party close to agreement on Georgian Supreme Court judge selection process

The leader of the parliamentary majority, Archil Talakvadze, has announced that the ruling party is ‘almost decided’ on procedures for selecting judges to the Georgian Supreme Court.

After the meeting held at Georgian Dream office last evening, he said that working on selection procedures will be kept in the legal framework meaning that it will be in alignment with the constitutional principles and other legislative acts regulating court system.

Considering the existing legal framework we will continue working on the document which will improve the Supreme Court judges’ selection process, their introduction to the parliament and finally, appointment,” Talakvadze said.

Former Chair of the Georgian Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee, Eka Beselia, who quit the post due to “hasty and unacceptable” process of lifetime appointment of judges which ‘should be suspended until the selection process is refined, also attended the meeting.

I have once again touched the issue of suspension of the judges lifetime appointment which had been shared by the Chairman of the ruling party. Bidzina ivanishvili said he supports this idea. Nobody seemed against. So we start initiation of a related procedures on how to appoint judges in the first and second instance courts while the supreme court issue needs to be discussed separately once again,” she said after the meeting at the Georgian Dream office.

Ten judges who have been nominated by the High Council of Justice for the Supreme Court of Georgia on December 25, have triggered controversies and criticism in the public and civil sector, as several of the judges “are affiliated with the United National Movement government and biased judiciary”, several members of the HCJ and NGOs said.

This is the first time when HCJ nominates candidates for the Supreme Court and sends the candidates to the Parliament of Georgia for voting. 

The procedure was written into the new constitution of Georgia which came into force after the 16 December inauguration of the new president of the country.