My Step Proposes to Terminate Hrayr Tovmasyan's and Other Constitutional Court Members' Tenure

Members of the National Assembly's "My Step" faction are proposing an amendment to the Constitution concerning the tenure of members and the president of the Constitutional Court. The proposal suggests that the following should be enshrined in the Constitution: the tenure of the president and members of the Constitutional Court appointed before the enforcement of Chapter 7 of the Constitution ceases.

It should be noted that only Constitutional Court judges Vahe Grigoryan and Arman Dilanyan were elected after the enforcement of Chapter 7 of the Constitution. This means that if these amendments are enacted, it will end not only the tenure of Constitutional Court President Hrayr Tovmasyan but also that of other court judges.

The proposal also mentions that nominations for vacant positions in the Constitutional Court are made sequentially by the Government, the President of the Republic, and the General Assembly of Judges.

The justification for the draft asserts that the current crisis surrounding the Constitutional Court has several aspects, which are serious challenges to Armenia's democracy, sovereignty, and legal integrity. "The primary issue in the Constitutional Court crisis is the evident substantive difference between the positions of previously appointed members and judges elected under Chapter 7 of the Constitution due to the amendments made in 2015, which increasingly sparks discussions in the legal community. The current composition of the Constitutional Court faces serious issues in terms of inter-parliamentary equality due to significant differences in the terms of office between judges elected under the 2015 Constitution and those appointed earlier. While newly elected judges serve for 12 years, previously appointed members who were appointed under the 1995 Constitution (2 members of the CC) serve until they reach the age of 70, and those appointed under the 2005 Constitution (5 members of the CC) until they reach the age of 65," the draft states.

According to the authors of the draft, a situation has arisen where a member of the Constitutional Court could serve on this judicial panel for 33 years (from 1996 to 2029), while the term for a newly appointed judge is limited to 12 years.