ZAGREB, Dec 2 (Hina) - After 25 years of its existence, the Croatian Administrative Court is completely computerised, but also with almost 50,000 backlog cases, officials said at Monday's marking of a quarter of a century of the
existence of the court, which supervises the legality of the work of the administration.
ZAGREB, Dec 2 (Hina) - After 25 years of its existence, the Croatian
Administrative Court is completely computerised, but also with
almost 50,000 backlog cases, officials said at Monday's marking of
a quarter of a century of the existence of the court, which
supervises the legality of the work of the administration. #L#
The court's president, Mladen Turkalj, said that the backlog began
to pile up after 1994 due to lawsuits concerning the status rights
of citizens, primarily to determine citizenship, and secondly, the
status of military war invalids.
Supreme Court president Ivica Crnic repeated that most judges
performed their duties conscientiously and responsibly.
Judges solve more than 2.5 million cases per year, but the chief
problem is the annual influx of 1.5 million cases and the same
number of pending cases, he said.
"Neither the rule of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) nor that of
the Social Democratic Party (SDP) are responsible for the situation
in the judiciary, but problems are always addressed to current
authorities," Crnic said.
Deputy Premier Goran Granic said that problems were easiest
transferred onto others, in this case from the judicial to the
executive authority, but this would not solve them.
"Citizens cannot exercise their legal security guaranteed by the
Constitution as long as there are a million and a half unsolved
cases," he said.
The precondition for decreasing the number of cases before the
Administrative Court is the modernisation of the state
administration which is uneducated and unorganised, said Granic,
announcing reforms in this field.
Justice Minister Ingrid Anticevic Marinovic did not agree with
Crnic that the prior or the incumbent government were not
responsible for the situation in the judiciary. She said the
judiciary was up to its head in problems because of the attitude of
the former government towards it, which the incumbent government
now "has to pay for".
"This government, as opposed to the former one, has actively shown
that it truly cares for problems in the judiciary to be solved,"
said the minister.
Pointing out that reforms in the judiciary were in full swing, she
said that for the first time, empty judges' seats had been filled
this year, for which there had not been sufficient funds earlier,
and the long-announced continuous training of judges had begun.
"Almost 20 percent more funds has been secured for the judiciary in
next year's budget, which has never happened before, while process
laws which halted the efficiency of the judiciary have been amended
or are being amended," the minister said.
(hina) lml sb