As it turned out from the working meeting attended by MPs: Ana Natsvlishvili, Tamar Kordzaia, Paata Manjgaladze, Levan Bezhashvili, and Ana Buchukuri, as well as legal experts, the representatives of the parliamentary opposition are preparing a constitutional lawsuit against the changes to the organic law on Common Courts.

The plaintiffs contend that a constitutional lawsuit must be signed by at least 30 MPs, and all parliamentary opposition representatives are consulted before the case is signed.

They claim that the signatures will be gathered over the next few days. Members of Democracy Index - Georgia and a group of independent attorneys prepared the complaint. The mentioned organizations will also represent the MPs in the Constitutional Court.

“Controversial modifications were proposed by a number of Georgian Dream MPs in December of last year, and the Parliament swiftly ratified them. The MPs will appeal these changes to the Constitutional Court. The modifications infringe on the constitutional rights of judges, reduce the guarantees of their individual independence, and give the powerful court ruling group more power to harass and sway individual justices. Plaintiffs and attorneys contend that since the law was changed last year, judges’ rights to free speech and the right to hold office have been curtailed. They also claim that the judicial members of the Council of Justice have unrestricted authority to appoint judges to other courts without their knowledge or consent and to initiate legal action against them on flimsy pretexts. The statute can be used unilaterally and selectively by judicial members of the Council of Justice for non-genuine goals, and it was noted that this violates the requirement of predictability. It should be mentioned that the legislative opposition fought vehemently to prevent the measures from being implemented. Constitutional lawsuits have been submitted to the panel of acting judges and the public defender in relation to the same legislative changes. The Venice Commission prepared and shared its disapproval of the draft law with the Parliament, and the President of Georgia, members of civil society, and Georgia’s international partners and organizations, which have been assisting the nation in judicial reform for many years, all publicly expressed their disapproval of the proposal”, - said Ana Natsvlishvili.

Implementation of judicial reform and ensuring independence is one of the 12 recommendations to be implemented for Georgia to receive the status of a candidate for EU membership.