DISCIPLINARY COMMISSIONER

OF THE ORDINARY COURT JUDGES

Warsaw, 12 December 2019

COMMUNICATION

of the Disciplinary Commissioner of the Ordinary Court Judges

I declare that the Deputy Disciplinary Commissioner of the Judges of the Ordinary Courts, Judge Przemysław W. Radzik initiated an investigation on 11 December 2019 regarding the reasonable suspicion of the commitment of a disciplinary offence under Article 107 § 1 of the Law on the Structure of Ordinary Courts of 27 July 2001 (Journal of Laws No. 52 of 2019), involving a breach of the dignity of the office by specified judges of the Court of Appeal in Katowice, who, on 11 December 2019, as public officials, members of the adjudicating panel in a specified case of an appeal against a judgment of the Regional Court in Gliwice, overstepped their powers in such a way that, by granting themselves the right to determine and assess the manner in which constitutional state bodies operate with regard to the method of selecting some of the members of the National Council of the Judiciary and the method of appointing an adjudicating judge in the first instance, as a result of which, in undermining the provision of Article 106i § 1 of the Law on the Structure of Ordinary Courts, they participated in issuing a decision to present a legal issue to the Supreme Court, the content of which constituted unlawful interference in the statutory method of appointing judges to adjudicating panels in accordance with the provisions of Articles 46a § 1 and 47b § 1 of the Law on the Structure of Ordinary Courts, which could have led to a breach of Article 178, para. 1 of the Constitution and breached the provision of Article 89 § 1 of the Law on the Structure of Ordinary Courts, thereby satisfying the features of a crime under Article 231 § 1 of the Penal Code and constituted action to the detriment of the public interest in the form of the correct functioning of the justice administration.

Notwithstanding the above, the subject matter of the investigative activities taken up is the matter of the rapporteur of the adjudicating panel in the said case of the Court of Appeal in Katowice committing a disciplinary delict (tort) under Article 107 § 1 of the Law on the Structure of Ordinary Courts, involving the failure to submit a motion to be excluded from participation in the specified case, in the situation where, before receiving the appointment to the office of judge of the Court of Appeal in Katowice, he participated in a recruitment process before the National Council of the Judiciary, the membership of which was formed on the basis of the provisions of the Act amending the Act on the National Council of the Judiciary and certain other acts of 8 December 2017 (Journal of Laws of 2018, item 3 as amended).

                                                                     (-) Regional Court Judge Piotr Schab

                                                                       DISCIPLINARY COMMISSIONER

                                                                   OF THE ORDINARY COURT JUDGES