ARMENIAN COURTS ALLOWED TO CHALLENGE UTILITY FEES
By Astghik Bedevian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Jan 16 2007
In a largely symbolic setback for the government, Armenia’s
Constitutional Court rescinded on Tuesday a legal provision preventing
citizens from challenging utility tariffs set by state regulators in
lower courts.
Acting on an appeal filed by 30 parliamentarians, the court declared
unconstitutional a relevant clause in an Armenian law regulating the
work of the Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC).
The state body has the exclusive authority to set the price of
electricity, gas and other utilities. Under the existing law, its
decisions are not subject to any appeal.
The legal challenge against it was initiated late last month
by the opposition Orinats Yerkir party of former parliament
speaker Artur Baghdasarian which says the existing utility fees are
disproportionately high. The move was widely construed as the start of
Orinats Yerkir’s preparations for this year’s parliamentary elections.
Making the plaintiffs’ case in the court, Hovannes Markarian, an
Orinats Yerkir lawmaker, said the PSRC should have revised the utility
prices downwards given the dramatic appreciation of the national
currency, the dram, in recent years. He said Armenians should be able
to stop utility companies making extra profits at their expense.
But lawyers from the Armenian parliament’s staff defended the
controversial legal clause. "As an independent state body, the Public
Service Regulatory Commission is not accountable to any branch of
government," one of them, Ashot Khachatrian, said. "Therefore, we
believe that the impossibility of appealing against tariffs in no
way violates the constitution and the principle of the separation
of powers."
The nine judges of the Constitutional Court rejected these arguments
after three hours of deliberations. However, their ruling will not
necessarily have practical consequences as Armenian courts of first
instance will still be unable to set any prices. Lawyers the courts
can now only advise the PSRC to reconsider its decisions.