Six Constitutional Tribunal judges demand new court president be appointed

Six judges of the Constitutional Tribunal (in total the Tribunal [TK] is composed of 15 judges, including the president of the high court - edit.) wrote two letters: one requesting court president Julia Przyłębska call the General Assembly, and the other informing Poland's President Andrzej Duda about their request. "Rzeczpospolita" daily has seen the two letters.

The six judges who undersigned the request sent to Julia Przyłębska were: Wojciech Sych, Jakub Stelina, Mariusz Muszyński, Andrzej Zielonacki, Zbigniew Jędrzejewski, and Bogdan Święczkowski.

Now, a dispute broke out over the Julia Przyłębska's term as TK president.

According to "Rzeczpospolita", former members of the Tribunal and experts argue that "Przyłębska had been appointed under the act (Act on the Constitutional Tribunal - edit.), which states that her term as president was for six years and ended on December 20, 2022".

Members of the ruling camp claim, however, that Przyłębska's term as TK president ends along her term as TK member, which is in December, 2024.

Poland's President Andrzej Duda was asked about the issue at a press briefing on Thursday. "The Constitutional Tribunal is the host of this case at the moment. It's the Constitutional Tribunal that makes decisions in this case at this stage," he said.

TK president Julia Przyłębska sent Polish Press Agency her statement regarding the matter on Thursday morning. In her opinion, the letter by the six judges "has no legal grounds and is objectless".

Przyłębska also said that the currently binding provisions regulating TK president's term in office had become effective on January 3, 2017, which was after she had been appointed court head. She added that the lawmakers had not introduced any provisions that would regulate the term of the sitting president of the court.

Furthermore, she argued that law cannot work retroactively, except under special circumstances approved by the lagislative branch. "A contrary interpretation has little to do with contemporary methods and standards of law interpretation, and, first and foremost, with constitutional rules and values which the TK judges are expected to safeguard," Przyłębska wrote.

She added that the candidacies of her predecessors in TK president office had been also put forward based on laws that did not regulate the lenght of said function. "Each of them remained president until the expiration of their mandate as Constitutional Tribunal judge," Przyłębska argued, adding that this was due to direct application of the Constitution.