The Georgian Young Lawyers Association (GYLA) has filed lawsuits with Tbilisi City Court against the High Council of Justice and the High School of Justice due to the failure to provide public information.

According to the organization, they applied to the High School of Justice on July 11, 2023, and to the High Council of Justice on August 9, 2023, with the request to provide public information.

Despite the fact that the requested information was public according to the General Administrative Code, which these institutions were obliged to provide by law, at the time of filing the lawsuit, the defendant public institutions have not even informed GYLA of their refusal to provide the requested information, just leaving their request without responding.

"GYLA requested information about the workload of specific judges, the list of judges/court chairpersons working in the judicial system, the number of judges appointed for life, the terms of appointment of judges, the names of judges who graduated from the High School of Justice, information about the sessions of the Council and acts adopted, and decisions made by the Independent Council of the School of Justice, information related to the competition announced by the School, the number of contestants participating in it, evaluation forms, etc.

In recent years, it has become clear that the situation in terms of transparency has worsened, this is against the background that international organizations, in their recommendations, point to the need for fundamental reform of the court, which, among many other issues, implies modifying the system by increasing transparency, good faith and accountability. Transparency is one of the determining factors of public trust in the court system. Consequently, in conditions of low trust in the judicial system, effective public control over its activities becomes especially important. However, the fact that the High Council of Justice/High School of Justice does not even provide information that they are obligated to proactively publish, once again clearly indicates the lack of accountability and the level of transparency of their activities. Ignoring the request for public information is a violation of the right to receive public information and the public actually loses the opportunity to observe important issues related to the court," reads the information.