1. The subject of the dispute is the appeal against the actions of the High Council of Justice (HCJ) regarding the restriction of payment of remuneration to a member of the HCJ in the period from April 18, 2020, to August 27, 2020, based on Article 29 of the Law of Ukraine “On the State Budget of Ukraine for 2020.”
2. The court refused to satisfy the claim because the judge’s remuneration and the HCJ member’s remuneration have different legal natures: the former is a guarantee of the independence of the court, and the latter is related to the powers of the HCJ to ensure the functioning of the judiciary; the restriction of payment of remuneration to HCJ members during the disputed period was carried out on the basis of the law in force at that time, which the HCJ was obliged to comply with; the HCJ does not pay judicial remuneration, therefore, it cannot rely on Article 130 of the Constitution of Ukraine and the Law of Ukraine “On the Judiciary and the Status of Judges” in the part defining the amount of remuneration to an HCJ member; the plaintiff’s reference to the practice of the Supreme Court regarding the payment of underpaid judicial remuneration is irrelevant, as it relates to other legal relations; the Court also noted that the plaintiff’s term for appealing to the court is not limited, since the dispute arose in connection with the payment of remuneration for the period up to July 19, 2022, and the provisions of Article 233 of the Labor Code of Ukraine in the version in force before that date, which does not limit the term for appealing to the court in cases of recovery of wages, apply to these legal relations. The court noted that it applied the legal conclusions of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court in case No. 990/234/23, which resolved a similar dispute.
3. The court decided to dismiss the administrative claim of PERSON_1 against the High Council of Justice to declare illegal actions and recover funds.
