On December 15 RA Constitutional Court started the hearings on the application
of “A1+” TV company founder, “Meltex” LLC, regarding the compliance of Point
1 of Article 204’28 of the RA Civil Procedure Code (“The Competences of the
Court in Case of Revision”) with the Main Law. As it has been reported, in the
application, lodged on August 19, 2009, “A1+” founder stated that the abovementioned
Point enables the court to confirm the previous judgment on a case without securing
the filed suit on reconsideration on the ground of new circumstances (see YPC
Weekly Newsletter, September 3-10, 2009). Namely this provision
made a basis for the RA Court of Cassation to decline on February 19, 2009 the
demand of “A1+” founder to reconsider the two rulings of the Court of Cassation
(of February 27 and April 23, 2004) on suits of “Meltex” LLC versus National
Commission on Television and Radio under new circumstances in the case. A new
circumstance became the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights of June
17, 2008, recognizing the refusals to grant ”A1+” a broadcast license to be
a violation of Article 10 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human
Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, i.e., of the right of the applicant to freely
impart information and ideas.
RA National Assembly provided the Constitutional Court with a written response
which was not secured. At the session of December 15 the Constitutional Court
stated that in September 2009, in another case, Point 1 of Article 204’28 of
the RA Civil Procedure Code was recognized contradicting to the Main Law. The
Court granted the National Assembly with some time for preparing an elucidation
why the provision incompliant with the Constitution is still prescribed by the
Code.
The next session will take place on February 23, 2010.
