ARM-2000-3-002

a) Armenia / b) Constitutional Court / c)  / d) 17-10-2000 / e) DCC-263 / f) On the conformity with the Constitution of the Resolution of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia "On the Resignation of the National Assembly's President" / g) to be published in Tegekagir (Official Gazette) / h) .

Keywords of the Systematic Thesaurus:

Keywords of the alphabetical index:

Parliament, President, resignation / Parliament, session, agenda, draft, amendment / Parliament, vacant position, assignment.

Headnotes:

According to [ENG-ARM-A-62] Article 62 of the Constitution, the National Assembly shall operate in accordance with its Rules of Procedure. Consequently, the National Assembly cannot adopt resolutions where violations of its Rules of Procedure occur.

Summary:

The President of the Republic petitioned the Constitutional Court in a challenge to the constitutionality of the National Assembly's Resolution on the Resignation of the National Assembly's President. According to the petitioner, the challenged Resolution contradicted [ENG-ARM-A-62] Article 62 of the Constitution, as the process by which the Resolution was adopted by the National Assembly had not been conducted pursuant to its Rules of Procedure and its Articles 1, 51, 87, 110 and 48.

Examining the Resolution, the process of its adoption and the protocol of the sitting, the Constitutional Court stated that the Resolution contradicted  [ENG-ARM-A-6] Articles 6 and  [ENG-ARM-A-62] 62 of the Constitution, in that it had been adopted with violations of several requirements of the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly. The Constitutional Court reasoned its approach on the following grounds.

The Rules specify that the three-day sittings of the National Assembly begin with the approval of the sitting agenda and the amendments to the session agenda. The latter is approved on the first sitting of the session and can be amended during the session. Compulsory discussion issues are also included in the draft of the session agenda. An exhaustive list of the compulsory discussion issues is provided for in Article 85.6 and 85.7 of the Rules of Procedure.

According to Article 87 of the Rules of Procedure it is only permitted to include in the agenda of the three-day sittings issues which are included in the session agenda and issues provided for in the Article (issues discussed but not finished during the previous three-day sittings, extraordinary issues provided for in the Constitution and the Rules of Procedure which have time-limits for discussion, as well as issues concerning elections or the assignment of vacant positions).

The National Assembly cannot discuss an issue without its inclusion on the agenda. The sitting where the challenged Resolution was adopted was in violation of the above-mentioned provisions' requirements. Despite the fact the issue was not included in the approved agenda, and following the registration of disputes, the Chairman of the sitting made a declaration and then allowed the unscheduled discussion.

According to the provisions of the National Assembly's Rules of Procedure, the Assembly can only discuss issues and adopt resolutions if there is a draft resolution. In violation of this requirement, the draft of the challenged Resolution was not prepared previously or introduced to the deputies.

Article 51 of the Rules of Procedure does not provide for the abstract possibility of the resignation of the National Assembly's President, Deputy Presidents and Heads of Commissions, but it determines that their powers can be terminated early by a National Assembly resolution pursuant to their request and only in case of the existence of two concrete grounds: illness or the impossibility to carry out responsibilities.

[ENG-ARM-A-62] Articles 62 and  [ENG-ARM-A-71] 71 of the Constitution and Articles 1, 52 and 105 of the Rules of Procedure provide that the National Assembly President's powers can be terminated by a National Assembly resolution adopted by the majority of the deputies sitting.

The Chairman of the sitting violated the Rules of Procedure in his formulation and introduction of the issue for voting. Article 110 of the Rules of Procedure demands that, "Before the start of voting, the Chairman repeats all the suggestions which are put for voting, clarifies their formulations, and reminds the Assembly of the number of votes necessary for the adoption of the resolution." In violation of this demand the Chairman did not remind the deputies of the number of votes necessary to adopt the Resolution.

According to [ENG-ARM-A-62] Article 62 of the Constitution, the National Assembly shall operate in accordance with its Rules of Procedure. National Assembly resolutions cannot be adopted where violations of the Rules of Procedure occur.

Languages:

Armenian, Russian (translation by the Court)