The interim president of the TS will replace Segoviano as a member of judicial origin in the JEC
MADRID, Jan. 19 (.) –
The Permanent Commission of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) has agreed this Thursday to raise a proposal in plenary session based on the report issued yesterday by the Government Chamber of the Supreme Court, in which it asked the CGPJ to urge Congress and the Senate to give a “immediate” solution to the “unsustainable situation” that the high court is going through due to its 19 unfilled vacancies, which throughout the year could reach 30% of its members.
As reported by the governing body of the judges, this was agreed by the Permanent Commission after taking cognizance of the report approved on Wednesday by the Governing Chamber of the Supreme Court (TS), with which it endorsed the report prepared by the director of the Technical Office of the Supreme Court, which in turn was commissioned by the CGPJ itself.
In said report, the Government Chamber details the impact that the reform carried out in 2021 to the Organic Law of the Judiciary (LOPJ) has had on its five chambers to prevent an expired CGPJ, like the current one — which has more than four years in office–, make discretionary appointments in the judicial leadership, at the top of which is the Supreme Court.
The ‘dossier’ recalls that the TS must have a president and 79 magistrates by law, warning that, however, the current figures are far from ideal: it is without a titular president and with a total of 19 vacancies.
The judicial headquarters estimates that in 2023 in its Social and Contentious-Administrative Chambers -which are the two most affected- some 1,230 fewer sentences will be handed down -570 fewer in Litigation and 660 in Social–, “with the serious damage to the defendant that this entails”, and with the serious delay in thousands of resolutions that would lead to the “collapse” of both chambers.
The Supreme Court warns of the “critical situation” in which the Social Chamber is currently found –with 5 vacancies in a staff of 13– and the Contentious-Administrative Chamber –with 10 vacancies in a staff of 33 –. For this reason, it demands that a provision of 15 legal positions from the Technical Cabinet with remuneration of coordinating lawyer and to be preferably covered by magistrates.
In this context, the TS magistrates consider it necessary for Parliament to establish an “immediate remedy for this state of affairs and promote any other initiatives in order to prevent it from getting worse.”
APPOINTMENT TO THE JEC
On the other hand, the Permanent Commission has appointed the interim president of the TS, Francisco Marín Castán, as a member of judicial origin of the Central Electoral Board (JEC).
Marín Castán, president of the Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court, will replace María Luisa Segoviano, former president of the Social Chamber who on January 9 took office as a new magistrate of the Constitutional Court (TC).
