30 March 2021, Tuesday, 13:23 157

Tupytskyi And Kasminin Not Dismissed, Respective Zelenskyy’s Decree Null And Void – Constitutional Court’s Ex-Head Dombrovskyi

Редактор: Daria Zubkova

Constitutional Court former head, Ivan Dombrovskyi, believes that the decree of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the abolition of the decree of the previous president on the appointment of Oleksandr Tupytskyi and Oleksandr Kasminin as judges of the Constitutional Court is null and void and does not entail any legal consequences.

Ukrainian News agency learned this from Dombrovskyi.

"In this case, there is no dismissal. The President cancelled the decree on appointment. They remain judges of the Constitutional Court. They can come to court sessions. And the judges of the Constitutional Court must decide if they consider the presidential decree null and void, as I do, or they say that they obey the decree, no matter how unlawful it is. I would shake hands with them and allow them to take their seats, because they are not dismissed," said Dombrovskyi.

According to him, Zelenskyy's decree contained references to various points, except for one, the law On the Constitutional Court.

"I consider this decree null and void. It does not entail any legal consequences. Of course, a person can be banned from entering the courtroom by force, but that would be another case," the former head of the Constitutional Court concluded.

Dombrovskyi stressed that in compliance with the Constitution of Ukraine, the President has the right to adopt decrees.

"He has such a right. The President has the right to cancel both his decrees and predecessors’, but such decrees must be substantiated," Dombrovskyi said.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, the Constitutional Court convened a special session on April 12 to consider the dismissal of Judges Oleksandr Tupytskyi and Oleksandr Kasminin by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

On March 27, Zelenskyy cancelled two decrees of former president Viktor Yanukovych on the appointment of Tupytskyi and Kasminin as judges.