Chairman of the Milli Majlis Committee for Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising Tahir Mirkishili announced at the committee meeting held on 24 June that they were going to look at two Bills containing amendments to the Law ‘On the State Duty’.

Mr Mirkishili referred to the first-reading Bill, drawn up pursuant to the presidential decree ‘On Deepening the Reforms in the Judicial and Legal System’ signed off on 3 April 2019 and envisaging an integrated action to improve the quality and efficiency of the administration of justice in Azerbaijan. Now, then, the amendments are proposed to the Law ‘On the State Duty’ that will address the matters laid down in the presidential decree.

Article 8 of the new is put forth in a new edition; this article concerns submission of statements of claim, other claims as well as complaints to courts of law, and it also does the state duty degrees chargeable for re-issuance of judicial act copies. The amendments contemplate a re-systematisation of the actions for which state duties are payable, whilst the state duty for releasing an assessment claim is to be differentiated alongside the revision of the sums payable. Fifty per cent of the appropriate duties paid would be transferred to the treasury accounts of the Supreme Court, the courts of appeal and the relevant executive authorities to be spent subsequently on improving the social protection of judicial administration staff and tangible security of courts of law alike.

As regards the amendments to Article 9 of the same law, they would cancel a number of provisions regarding exemption from payments. It follows from Paragraph 9.1.14, for instance, that state-funded organisations and the municipalities will be exempt to the state duty for submission of statements of claim and complaints of all manner to courts of law.

Furthermore, a new article would be integrated into the law that would introduce the state duty of AZN 100 for issuance of the certificates of independent forensic experts, according to Mr Mirkishili.

The attending Chairman of the Civic Collegium of the Supreme Court Sanan Hajiyev noted that the current reforms in the judicial and legal system were aimed at institutional transformation, emergence of private expert inspection institutions and streamlining execution of court rulings. The changes contemplated in the Bill are about optimising the situation; the legislative streamlining also aims to raise the public satisfaction with the quality of the justice administration and with the verdicts alike.

Anar Gasimli of the Bar Council observed as he was commenting on the Bill that it also pursued the goal of discouraging submission to courts of unfounded complaints and pleas.

The speakers at the committee meeting quoted some examples and statistical figures representing the international experience of levying state duties and fees for cases in court proceedings. Opinions about the Bill as well as remarks and suggestions came from Deputy Committee Chairman Ali Masimli and the committee members Vugar Bayramov and Rufat Guliyev. First Deputy Chair of the Milli Majlis and chairman of the Law Policy and State-Building Committee Ali Huseynli told the assembled of the current situation in the national judicial and legal system and of the duties in use in it; he emphasised the need to perfect this realm.

The Committee moved on to the next Bill which, too, contained amendments to the Law ‘On the State Duty’. It was said that that document had been composed with regards to enforcement of the law of 18 December 2020 ‘On Amending the Customs Code of the Azerbaijan Republic’. It is proposed to replace the wordings ‘overseas motor cars’, ‘overseas transport vehicles’ and ‘overseas cargo transport vehicles’ with the corresponding new expressions ‘motor cars registered in other states’ and ‘transport vehicles registered in other states’.

At the end of the committee meeting it was recommended that both Bills with amendments to the Law ‘On the State Duty’ should be tabled for consideration at a plenary sitting of the Milli Majlis.

The Press and Public Relations Department 
The Milli Majlis