20:02,
YEREVAN, MAY 11, ARMENPRESS. In the process of the implementation of judicial vetting, Justice Minster of Armenia Rustam Badasyan attaches more importance to who will enter the judicial system, rather than who will leave it. For that reason the judicial system is becoming more attractive for good judges, ARMENPRESS reports Badasyan said during a discussion with Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan.
Nikol Pashinyan noted that he has the impression that the Government has not illustrated the judicial reforms to a sufficient extent and that is why many people think that the Government promised vetting but forgot the promise.
In response, Justice Minister Rustam Bdasyan said, ‘’I think it’s more important to think of who will enter the judicial system, rather than who will leave it’’.
The Minister noted the judicial system remains out of interest of really good specialists. According to him, in the last 2 years only 30 people study at the Academy of Justice, which means that there are 30 candidates for the position of judges, which is extremely low number. ‘’This is another proof of the fact that the judicial system is not interesting for many good specialists, which signals that serious changes should be carried out. I think the 1st condition is the adequate salary’’, the Minister said. He added that the Judicial Department introduced a gradual system of increasing the remuneration of judges with medium-term expenditure programs, which means that if the Government approves it, the salary of judges will increase by 50% in 2020, 60% in 2021 and 70% in 2022.
‘’Currently, the salary of a judge of the Court of First Instance is about 661 thousand drams, the judge of the Court of Appeal – 727 thousand drams, the judge of Cassation Court – 760 thousand drams. If the salary increase in 2020 takes place, the salary will be 991 thousand drams, in 2021 – 1 million 57 thousand, in 2022 – 1 million 123 thousand drams’’, the Minister said.
PM Pahsinyan noted that the increase of the salary of salaries is 1st of all done for the benefit of the citizens, who often write to the PM or Minister that the decision of the court was not fair. ‘’It’s clear that it’s also done for the judges, but 1st of all it’s done for making the job of the judge so attractive that the top level specialists get involved in the system’’, PM Pashinyan said.
Reporting by Anna Grigoryan, Editing and translating by Tigran Sirekanyan