Constitutional Court rejects opposition bids to remove judges from party ban case

The Constitutional Court has rejected motions by the United National Movement and Lelo to recuse judges from the case.

The UNM’s Ana Tsitlidze called for the recusal of the court’s entire bench, while Lelo sought to recuse three judges: Vasil Roinishvili, Sergo Metopishvili, and Goga Kikilashvili.

Presiding judge Revaz Nadaraia said that seeking to recuse a Constitutional Court judge simply because someone dislikes the judge, their background or their career has no legal basis.

“The ruling is final and cannot be appealed or reviewed. Once the Plenum members fully approve it, the document will be published on the Constitutional Court’s website and forwarded to the parties and the Legislative Herald of Georgia within 15 days.

The UNM’s recusal motion relied heavily on criticisms of the judges’ backgrounds to question their independence and impartiality. Nevertheless, the party could not point to any evidence suggesting the bench would be biased.

Regarding Lelo’s motion against three judges, the party is effectively contesting the judicial appointment process itself. That appointment procedure has been in force in Georgia since 24 August 1995, when the current Constitution was adopted. It remains somewhat unclear what the grounds for recusal were. As for the mention of the Shavadze case regarding Vasil Roinishvili, he was only a general prosecutor at the time, and the incident is cited as one of many facts in the broader lawsuit. We are not hearing the Shavadze case itself, so using it as grounds for recusal or to question the judge’s impartiality is entirely unfounded. At the same time, the Constitutional Court maintains a very high standard for judicial recusal, which a moving party must satisfy when seeking to disqualify a judge. This threshold was firmly established in a judgment dated 11 November 2015. I won’t name the parties, but that ruling set a very high bar for recusing judges. Likewise, a 24 November 2022 case also set a very high bar. Recusing a Constitutional Court judge simply because someone dislikes the judge, their background or their career is not grounds for recusal and has no legal basis. Additionally, a recent Plenum decision rejecting a judge’s self-recusal request has further solidified this framework. Drawing on the two previous examples, the Plenum established a clear precedent, ensuring these court standards remain fixed and binding,” Nadaraia said.

The court also dismissed an application submitted by Gakharia for Georgia to sever its case from the joint proceedings.

Today’s hearing is being heard by judges Eva Gotsiridze, Giorgi Tevdorashvili, Vasil Roinishvili, Giorgi Modebadze, Sergo Metopishvili, Goga Kikilashvili and Revaz Nadaraia.

The Constitutional Court is hearing Georgian Dream’s constitutional lawsuit seeking to declare the United National Movement, the Coalition for Change, Strong Georgia – Lelo, the Federalists and Gakharia for Georgia unconstitutional and ban their activities. The hearing began today and will continue for three days.