Brief introduction of the Administrative Court of Justice
Considering the high position of monitoring the good implementation of laws in administrative authorities and guaranteeing the principle of the rule of law as well as guaranteeing the rights of citizens against administrative decisions and actions, according to the duties and tasks of the judiciary in Article 156 of the Constitution, a special judicial body to handle complaints and People’s grievances have been predicted, which in the 38-year operation of the Administrative Justice Court has shown the effective role of this institution in protecting the rights of citizens.
Therefore, according to Article 173 of the Constitution, in order to deal with people’s complaints, grievances, and protests against government officials or units or regulations and to enforce their rights, a court called ” The “Administrative Justice Court” has been formed under the supervision of the head of the judiciary. According to the Law on the Organization and Procedure of the Court of Administrative Justice approved in 2012, which is currently the governing law of the Court of Administrative Justice. As a judicial authority based only in Tehran, the court consists of primary, appeals, general and specialized branches.
Of course, in order to facilitate people’s access to the services of the court, administrative offices of the court have been established in the centers of the provinces, which are responsible for registering the requests and petitions of the plaintiffs and their judicial guidance and assistance.
How to elect the president of the Administrative Court of Justice
The head of the court is appointed by the decision of the head of the judiciary and can have as many deputies and advisors as necessary. He can also delegate some of his powers to his deputies. According to Article 5 of the Law on Organizations and Procedures of the Court of Administrative Justice, the president of the court is also the head of the first appeal branch of the court and will have as many deputies and advisors as needed. He can delegate some of his powers to the deputies. The powers and duties provided by the current law for the President of the Court are extensive. Some of the most important of these duties are as follows.
– Head of the first appeal branch.
– Administrative head of the Court of Administrative Justice.
– Appointing a consultant member in cases of dispute and failure to obtain a majority in the appeals branches.
– Proposal of qualified judges to serve in the Court of Administrative Justice to the Head of the Judiciary.
– Recognizing the necessity of referring the matter to an expert or consultant and introducing the expert or consultant to the branch.
– Inviting experts and consultants to attend and express their opinion in the meetings of the general board without having the right to vote.
– Formation of the execution unit under the supervision of the head of the court or his deputy.
– Proposing the cost of proceedings proportional to the inflation rate once every three years for confirmation and approval to the head of the judiciary.
– Referral of petitions filed by the president of the court or his deputies.
– Request to send the required documents from executive bodies.
– Recognizing the necessity of out-of-hours handling of the cases of the primary and appeal branches and the duty of the branches to handle out-of-hours hearings based on the request and judgment of the President of the Court according to Article 47 of the Law of the Court.
– Presiding over the meetings of the General Board of the Administrative Court of Justice.
Deputies of the Administrative Court of Justice
The deputies of the Court of Administrative Justice are:
Legal assistant, prevention and research
Vice President of Development and Resource Management
Deputy general board and specialized boards
Deputy of supervision and inspection
Judicial deputy in economic affairs, land and urban development
Judicial deputy in labor and social security affairs
Judicial deputy in employment and cultural affairs
In addition to the various duties of the legal assistant, prevention and research, publishing the opinions of the general board of the court, publishing specialized books and publications, interacting and communicating with universities and supporting specialized theses, holding conferences in scientific circles, holding simulated courts of administrative proceedings (moot court) using the capacity of professors and students in related fields and providing the possibility of their presence in the Court branches and the general board and the training of judges and court staff, Creating interaction with the executive bodies to amend the methods, rules and regulations for the strict implementation of the laws and regulations and to prevent the congestion of cases in the court and interaction with the legislative branch (specialized commissions of the Islamic Council) to provide suggested opinions regarding the amendment of the laws and regulations that lead to entry He has provided the files to the court.
How to appoint Supreme Court judges
Court judges are appointed by the decision of the head of the judiciary. Court judges must have ten years of judicial work experience. In the case of judges who have a master’s degree or a doctorate in one of the fields of law or equivalent academic degrees, having five years of judicial work experience is sufficient. Judges who have at least five years of judicial experience in the court are excluded from this provision.
Procedure in the Court of Justice branches
Complaints about the decisions and actions of government units and officials, as well as complaints about the decisions and definitive opinions of administrative boards and commissions and employment complaints of government employees and some public and executive institutions and bodies of the country are handled by the branches of the court. Proceedings in court branches require filing a petition. Complainants can send their petitions to the Secretariat of the Court by registered post or e-mail of the Court or registered in the electronic database, or to the Secretariat of the Court or its administrative offices located in the centers of the provinces.
Court branches deal with a complaint that the interested party or his lawyer or deputy or legal representative has requested to deal with the complaint according to the law. If the decisions and actions that are the subject of the complaint have caused the rights of individuals to be violated, the court branches can issue an appropriate verdict on the violation of the opinion or canceling the effect of the decision and action under complaint or requiring the complaining party to restore the violated rights. It should be noted that the hearing of the case in cases of issuing a temporary order will be out of turn.
Temporary order in the Administrative Court of Justice
According to articles 34-40 of the Law of the Court, the branches of the Court of Justice can appeal according to the request of the plaintiff, in case the plaintiff has claimed that the implementation of actions or decisions or definitive opinions or refusal to perform duties by the party to the complaint or the implementation of the disputed provision, causes damages to be compensated. If it is impossible or difficult, try to issue a temporary order.
Number of branches
Currently, 68 primary branches, 32 appeal branches and 9 execution branches are working in the court. Each primary branch of the court consists of a president or alternate judge. Each of the primary branches of the court are specialized according to the types of administrative claims that can be brought before them. The judges of these branches proceed to process and issue judgments based on their expertise. The decisions issued by the primary branches can be appealed.
One of the parties or their lawyer or legal representative can file an appeal against all the decisions of the Court’s branches within 20 days from notification. This deadline for people residing outside of Iran is two months from the date of notification. The Court’s appellate division consists of a president and two advisers, and the criterion for issuing a decision is the opinion of the majority.
Dealing with conflicting opinions between Sharia or law
According to Article 79 of the Law on Organizations and Procedures for complaints to the Court of Administrative Justice, if the head of the judiciary or the head of the court finds the final decision of the court’s branches to be against the Sharia or the law, the head of the court can re-examine the case and issue a decision by one of the branches of the court. This is considered as one of the exceptional ways of revising the decisions issued by the Court’s branches. Also, in the court law, the possibility of resuming proceedings has been identified. In cases of claims that the resolution, instructions, regulations or directives of the executive bodies are against Sharia, the complainant will refer the matter to the honorable Guardian Council and the opinion of this council will be the basis of action.
How is the execution of judgments in the Supreme Court?
Considering the necessity of vindicating the rights and restoring the violated rights of the citizens in the light of the final decisions of the Administrative Court of Justice and the principle of the necessity of following judicial decisions, the institutions and executive bodies subject to the jurisdiction of the Administrative Court of Justice are obliged to implement the decisions of the Court immediately after notification. However, in order to enforce the judgments issued by the court branches, a judgment enforcement branch has been formed in each deputy, which performs its duties under the supervision of one of the relevant deputies and has a sufficient number of judges, office managers and employees.
After delivering the decision to the convicted person, the court branches send a copy of it to the execution branch of the relevant judgments along with the case file. The convicted person is obliged to report the action and result in writing to the court’s sentence enforcement unit within a period of one month regarding its complete implementation or obtaining the consent of the convicted person. Otherwise, the complainant will be sentenced to temporary dismissal from government service for up to five years and compensation for the damage caused by the decision of the branch issuing the verdict. Of course, for complaints about taxes, punishments, municipalities, etc., the ruling is also issued by the Administrative Court of Justice.
Specialized boards of the Administrative Court of Justice
Matters that are under the jurisdiction of the general board of the court, according to the law, are first referred to the specialized boards composed of at least fifteen judges of the court who have expertise in cases that can be filed in the court. If the opinion of the absolute majority of the specialized board is in favor of accepting the complaint and canceling the approval, the case will be sent to the general board along with the theory of the board to make a decision; But if the opinion of three-fourths of the members of the expert panel is to reject the complaint, it will issue a decision to reject the complaint in the Administrative Court of Justice.
This decision can be challenged by the president of the court or ten judges of the court within twenty days from the date of issue. In case of objection or if the opinion of the majority of less than three-fourths of the members is against the rejection of the complaint, the case along with the theory of the expert panel will be presented in the general panel and a decision will be made.
General Board
According to Clause (1) of Article 12 of the Law on Organizations and Procedures of the Court of Administrative Justice, objections to government regulations and by-laws, if they are passed against the laws or Sharia or beyond the powers of the approving authority, are dealt with by the General Board of the Court. In requesting the annulment of the approvals, it is not necessary for the petitioner to be the beneficiary and to pay the legal fees, and anyone can request the annulment of the approvals that are against the laws or sharia or beyond the authority of the approving authority.
The General Board of the Edri Court of Justice can annul all or part of the contested resolution if it deems the objection to be valid. According to Article 8 of the Law on Organizations and Procedures of the Court, the General Board of the Court is formed with the participation of at least two-thirds of the judges of the Court under the chairmanship of the President of the Court or his judicial deputy. The criterion for issuing a vote is the opinion of the majority of the present members. The decision of the general board is mandatory for the branches of the court and related administrative authorities in similar cases, and disobeying the implementation of the decisions of the general board is subject to punishment.
Dadista Law Firm is one of the legal firms that deals with legal issues in the Administrative Court of Justice. You can get help from expert lawyers in this institution to investigate your legal and criminal problems.