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On July 24, 2014, the RA Administrative Court of Appeals presided by the judge A. Arakelyan examined the appeal of the Ministry of Defense on decree of the RA Administrative Court of April 9, 2014 on the claim by the HCA Vanadzor to provide information. Note that the RA Administrative Court upheld the claim of the HCA Vanadzor and obliged the Ministry of Defense to provide the information inquired by the NGO, namely the names of the suppliers of food, clothing, fuel and stationery to the RA Ministry of Defense and the types of such food, clothing, fuel and stationery.

At the court hearing of July 24, 2014, Manik Santrosyan represented the RA Ministry of Defense, and Ani Chatinyan represented Artur Sakunts, Chairman of the HCA Vanadzor. First, the presiding judge presented the appeal and the response to the appeal and then posed questions to the parties. The plaintiff, i.e. the RA Ministry of Defense supported its appeal by grounds of violation of substantive and procedural law. Thus, the plaintiff found that the RA Administrative Court should first have scrutinized the essence and contents of information requested by the HCA Vanadzor to find out whether such information covered any state and official secret, and only then rule whether such information could be accessed or not. The RA Ministry of Defense referred to the RA Government Decree No. 173 of March 13, 1998 listing the fields considered as state secret and mentioned that the requested information covered the fields of the list and that the Decree of the RA Constitutional Court No. 1010 of March 6, 2012 declaring the clause “The departmental lists are classified and not subject to disclosure” of Article 12(7) of the RA Law on State and Official Secret unconstitutional was not applicable to this case.

In its response to the appeal, the HCA Vanadzor referred to the clause of the RA Government Decree No. 1521 of December 17, 2009 stating that purchases not related with provision of ​​military equipment, arms and ammunition were shown in procurement lists as non-confidential purchases.

The presiding judge stated that the RA Administrative Court supported its ruling with the fact that back in 2006, the information requested by the HCA Vanadzor was provided to a person, namely the journalist Naira Bulghadaryan. The initial applicant had submitted the response provided to the journalist to the court, enclosed to the application. When asked to comment on this fact, the representative of the Ministry of Defense stated that even if the Ministry had provided such kind of information, the person responsible might have done so by mistake, and it did not mean that the departmental body would make the same mistake again and again.

The presiding judge also asked the representative of the HCA Vanadzor to specify how the NGO had obtained the response letter addressed to journalist Naira Bulghadaryan. A. Chatinyan answered that the letter had been published in the ‘Civil Initiative’ newspaper, and Naira Bulghadaryan later provided a copy of the letter.

Hence, the Court considered the examination of the complaint completed. The Court ruling will be published at 11:40 a.m., August 8, 2014.