The Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) rules that the independence of the judges does not exclude their responsibility in exercising office, according to Agerpres.

CCR published, on Monday evening, the reasoning for the decision of November 9 to reject the referral to the Ombudsman on the Law on the statute of judges and prosecutors.

„The independence of the judge does not exclude his responsibility in the exercise of the office he holds. The judge’s responsibility is one of the elements that the quality of the judicial act and, implicitly, its impartiality, relies on” state the constitutional judges.

According to them, the assessment of the judges’ activity must be carried out in relation to the activity they perform, otherwise it would not be possible to quantify the way in which they exercise their judicial office.

„The quality of their activity is assessed according to this criterion, which is not a single one, but is part of several criteria, and the assessment on each criterion separately leads to the general conclusion regarding the quality of the activity carried out,” the document states.

Moreover, the Constitutional Court says, according to art. 102 paragraph (1) of the law, that the judges who are dissatisfied with the qualification they receive can appeal to the Section for Judges of the CSM (Supreme Council of Magistrates), and its decision can be appealed with the administrative and fiscal litigation section of the High Court of Cassation and Justice. Therefore, the appendix no. 1 B art. 2 item b) to the law does not violate art. 124 paragraph (3) and art. 1 paragraph (3) of the Constitution.

Agerpres