Priority Tasks in the Judicial Sphere Discussed

On November 14, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev chaired a meeting on the priority tasks in ensuring justice.

The fate of people, systematic work and the development of various areas often depend on the activities of the courts. Therefore, the measures are being taken in the country to strengthen the independence of the courts, to ensure impartiality, fairness and legality in the consideration of cases. Over the past six years, more than 50 laws, decrees and resolutions regarding the judiciary have been adopted.

During this period, 4,000 unjustly accused were acquitted, more than 26,000 people were released from the courtroom, and charges brought by the investigation were dropped from 47,000 citizens.

Increasing confidence in the judiciary also affects the economy and business development. In particular, the number of enterprises doubled in six years and reached 530,000. The economy received $39 billion of foreign investment. Today there are more than 15 thousand foreign and joint ventures.

The Development Strategy of Uzbekistan defines the goal of implementing the principles of true equality and competitiveness of the parties in the judicial process, increasing the level of access of citizens and business entities to justice. Proceeding from this, the responsible officials and specialists studied the challenges at places and conversed with people.

The reported issues and discussed proposals for reforming the sphere were analyzed at the meeting.

It was noted that an average of 1,5 million people apply to the courts every year. There are a lot of red tape, as the regional courts do not show sufficient responsibility for making fair decisions. For example, 18,000 citizens, who are dissatisfied with the decisions of regional courts have applied to the Supreme Court since the beginning of the year.

Litigation continues as usual. The reputation of lawyers is low. The investigators stopped working on themselves.

The term of office of judges was extended, as well as their salaries were significantly increased to avoid interference in the work of the court. The authority to appoint them to office has been transferred to the Supreme Judicial Council. However, some gaps remain on this issue.

In this regard, the President gave instructions on creating an atmosphere of competition in the courts, improving the work of law enforcement agencies.

The task was set to increase the responsibility of regional courts, to develop draft laws providing for the adoption by the court of a criminal case not only with an indictment, but also with the opinion of a defense lawyer.

The importance of a radical reform of the Higher School of Judges, training judges on the property, family, tax, labor relations for district and regional courts was emphasized. A proposal was approved to strengthen the powers of the judiciary and gradually increase the number of judges.

The President gave the instructions to expand the digitalization of the sphere, improve convenience for people through the mutual integration of information systems and the introduction of modern technologies.