The Supreme Court struck down the assessments of 180 judges of low integrity, jeopardising the cleansing of the judiciary

Yesterday, July 3, the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court published a decision in the case of Vitaliy Usatyi, a judge from the Commercial Court of Kharkiv Oblast. He appealed the procedure of his qualification assessment in the Supreme Court. On June 13, the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court declared his assessment invalid, thereby nullifying the qualification assessment of 180 other low-integrity judges with negative opinions of the Public Integrity Council (PIC), allowing them to retain their positions and jeopardising the cleansing of the judiciary. Furthermore, this decision contradicts the provisions of the law.

According to the Law “On the Judiciary and the Status of Judges,” there is a single procedure for conducting qualification assessment. The suitability of a judge for the position and ability to administer justice in the respective court are assessed by panels of the High Qualification Commission of Judges (HQCJ). This procedure has special rules in case of PIC’s opinion on the judge’s non-compliance with integrity criteria. If a judge receives a negative opinion from the Public Integrity Council (PIC) and the HQCJ’s three-member panel agrees, the judge is recommended for dismissal. If the panel disagrees, the full HQCJ (the plenary) reviews the case and can overturn the negative PIC’s opinion with 11 votes of the plenary.

According to the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court, the panel’s decision should be final, and the deliberation by the full composition of the HQCJ in this case is not mandatory. There are allegedly two different qualification assessment procedures: a competitive one — for the ability to administer justice in the respective court, and an assessment for suitability for the position (as an outcome of which a judge may be dismissed). Therefore, the rules for conducting the first procedure cannot be applied to the second.

Following this justification, the HQCJ cannot dismiss 180 low-integrity judges with PIC’s opinion of non-compliance with their positions as prescribed by the law. Among them are judges Inna Otrosh, Kliuchnyk, Lutsenko, Vasylieva, Kytsiuk, and others, who have held activists of the Revolution of Dignity accountable, have unexplained assets, massively dismissed drunk drivers from responsibility, and travelled to Russia and occupied Crimea.

Notably, the NGOs have repeatedly emphasised the need for the Supreme Court renewal. Moreover, this is one of the priorities for Ukraine’s integration into the EU and the G7 Ambassadors’ reforms in the justice sector.