2018-08-06

West Bank

West Bank / position paper

Memo: The Judicial Holiday Should Not Disable the Judiciary and the Delayed Justice is a Blatant Injustice

The honorable president and members of the High Judicial Council, 

Subject: The execution departments’ work during the judicial holiday

 
The Palestinian Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession extends their warmest greetings to you, and proceeding from its professional role as an independent civic watchdog, and according to the complaints and the notes it received on the executive judge’s refusal to consider a number of execution requests and procedures, claiming that they were submitted during the judicial holiday, what harmed the litigators and their agents, considering that the judicial holiday is  personal right of the judges, which does not intend to disrupt the work of courts or to contain the judicial authority, and thus the duty judges or the persons who work during the judicial holiday are obliged to do their judicial job duties fully, and to consider all the cases and the request that relate to their profession, what makes the duty judge’s, regardless of his/her judicial position, refrain from considering and adjudicating the cases referred to him/her could seriously damage the litigators, and also affects their trust in the judiciary and the judicial authority in general, noting that the dissemination issued by his excellency, the president of the High Judicial Court and the Supreme Court, and its amendments, are an indicator on the seriousness of rejecting a number of disputes and requests submitted by litigators to the judges, especially the executive duty judges, because of the judicial holiday, the rejection, in this case, has no legal basis,  in addition to the bad results it causes the litigators and affects their rights and their trust in the judiciary.

  
Thus, MUSAWA demands you to consider this memo and to take the necessary legal action in its regard, to help the litigators to access to justice and to achieve their rights as fast as possible, without any legally unjustified delay, as such delays could increase the judicial accumulation, and it is illegal to leave decision on adjournment to the subjective assessment of the judge, as any request submitted by the litigator to the judiciary is of paramount importance for him/her, his/her rights, safety, and stability, in addition, when considering a request, the judge has the power to decide whatever he/she wants in its regard, as deciding on such requests is by itself a consideration of it, and not an exclusion of it, which should not be decided without considering the case at the first place.  

 
 
With All Due Respect

Issued on 6/8/2018