Public Consideration of Constitutional changes in Telavi

Another airing of the Draft Constitution has been held, this time in Telavi, at the Iakob Gogebashvili State University. The supreme law of the country was introduced to students and lecturers by the Chairman of the Georgian Parliament, Mr. David Bakradze and the members of the Public Consideration Commission.

David Bakradze stated that everybody's opinion is important for the finalisation of the Constitution as it shall serve the needs and demands of the people, protection of their rights and of their freedom.

After introduction of the basic provisions of the new Draft Constitution, the meeting continued in the question-answer regime. The students and the lecturers attached their interest on the constitutional guarantees for the property rights.

As the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee On Legal Issues, Pavle Kublashvili explained, the new Constitution stipulates the firm guarantees of protection of the property rights, however, in the event of restriction of the property right, the state shall remunerate the property value in advance. Although, if the owner considers this decision as unfair, he/she shall hold the right to appeal to the court.

Strengthening of the Judiciary is one of the basic changes, stipulated under the new Draft Constitution. High interest of the residents of Telavi was attached to the termless appointment of the judges until the pension age. The legislators consider that the termless appointment will increase the independence degree of the court. The judges will have the three-year trial period prior to their appointment.

"The judge, appointed termless, will not be dependent neither on political state nor the President, neither on the Parliament not the Prosecutor,buton the law and own conscience solely. There does not exist the higher degree of guarantee in the international practice. We want the court to be independent, we want the judges to have the highest degree of independents, thus, we have selected the strongest norm from the international practice, which will assure the independence of the judges”, - David Bakradze stated.

As Pavle Kublashvili stated, the rights of the Supreme Council of Justice will be increased in order to strengthen the judiciary.

"It is the most important that the Supreme Council of Justice will have the right to appeal the normative act in the court, which restricts the independence of the judge. Such protection guarantees have not been stipulated under the Constitution of Georgia yet. Such innovation will strengthen the Supreme Council of Justice and will increase the independence degree of the judgers”, - Pavle Kublashvili explained and noted that the institution of Jury will be inculcated in the court in the nearest future.

At the meeting, held in Kakheti, the legislators touched upon the citizenship of selective officials. It was noted that any selective official shall be the citizen of Georgia and the President of the country shall be the origin citizen of Georgia.

The remarks and the proposals, expressed at the meeting will be considered at the Parliamentary sittings.

The next public consideration of the Constitutional changes will be held on August 20 in Poti.