A Claim to Annul
00:00, May 5, 2011 | Press Release | Freedom of Information and Speech, Right to Fair Trial
The RA Administrative Court has rejected a claim submitted by Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor against the resolution of the Stepanavan Avagani and because of this resolution, Stepanavan residents will continue to pay 500 AMD per newspaper.
Since May of 2009,Stepanavan residents have been paying 500 AMD for a copy of each page of the newspaper in order to receive written information from the Municipality.
HCA-Vanadzor has applied to the RA Administrative Court of Appeal with a claim to revoke the resolution made by the RA Administrative Court to denounce the administrative act.
Arayik Zalyan, advocate of the organization, considers the Avagani Resolution illegal by asserting that it conflicts with the RA legislation. “# 19-N Resolution of the Stepanavan Avagani has not been published, including the RA Bulletin of Departmental Regulatory Acts, therefore, the normal provisions of the Constitution do not have legal power”, notes advocate Zalyan. Arayik Zalyan considers the Court’s decision illegal and subject to revocation because the aforementioned judicial act, alegal act, isvoid of legal power, and is being applied to the organization. “The applied “law” does not originatefrom the legal act or from the “accessibility”principle, therefore, “solicitation” regarding the organization’s right to freedom of information didn’t emanate from the law”, explains Arayik Zalyan. It should be noted that Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor was notified about the # 19-N Resolution after it applied to Stepanavan Municipality to request copies of the resolutions taken by the Stepanavan Avagani members during May-September of 2009.
The Human Rights organization received a letter in response from the Stepanavan Municipality in which they rejected to provide information with a justification that 500 AMD is defined for a copy of each page of the legal decisions. Later, the organization turned again to the Stepanavan Municipality and requested a copy of # 19-N resolution. “Pursuant to the Constitution, the Community Avagani is not authorized to assesslocal fees for the copies of the decisions in the Municipality, and therefore the Stepanavan Community Avagani should not have made such a resolution”, notes the advocate.
The advocate states that the RA Administrative Court has misinterpreted Section “e” of Article 7 of the RA Law on the“RA Local Duties and Fees” which is a type of local fee applied to copies from the community archive.
“In this case, while taking into consideration the # 19-N resolution, the Stepanavan Community Avagani did not consider archived documents but copies of decisions photocopied at the Municipality, therefore, this disputable legal issue cannot be placed in the legal field of Section “e” of Article 7 of the RA Law on the “RA Local Duties and Fees”, concluded advocate Zalyan.