Constitutional Court Ex-Chief Justice Dombrovskyi: Authorities Seeking To Forcibly Dissolve Supreme Court Of Ukraine

Dombrovskyi stated this in comments to the Ukrainian News Agency.
"The authorities will achieve forcible [dissolution of the Supreme Court of Ukraine]. It is very difficult to call this a reform when they are acting this way," he said.
According to Dombrovskyi, there is no legal act on liquidation of the Supreme Court of Ukraine.
"There is no such act because the Supreme Court of Ukraine was never created by anyone. It began operation in the Ukrainian People's Republic, it was included in the Constitution, and this has constantly passed from Constitution to Constitution, regardless of what the Ukrainian state was called. Nobody creates it; it exists in accordance with the Constitution. The Supreme Court cannot be abolished for one second. It is not abolishable," Dombrovskyi said.
He added that the Supreme Court could be liquidated only by its creator.
Regarding the Higher Qualification Commission of Judges’ recommendation that the previous judges of the Supreme Court should be transferred to lower courts, Dombrovskyi said he had never heard of such a practice.
"There are constitutional grounds for dismissal of judges. However, unfortunately, there is a new reason for dismissal of a judge in the transitional provisions [of the Law on the New Supreme Court]: when he does not agree to transfer to another court. There are no such grounds in the basic provisions of the Constitution. There are nine grounds for dismissal of a Supreme Court judge in the basic provisions of the Constitution…" Dombrovskyi said.
He also believes that the Higher Qualification Commission of Judges has nothing to do with independence of courts because its function is to check courts that are in operation and candidates for judges.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, Vitalii Boiko, who was the chief justice of the Supreme Court from December 1994 to October 2002, has said that the Constitution makes no provision for dissolution of the Supreme Court.