The BiH Constitutional Court has accepted the appeal of the Ministry of Defense in the Council of Ministers regarding the registration in BiH of more than 250,000 square meters of land in the municipality of Foča, which is in the possession of the Republic of Srpska.
This appeal was adopted by the Constitutional Court at its last session, held on May 20.
The verdict states that there is a violation of the right to a fair hearing and revokes the verdict of the District Court in Trebinje from January 24, 2018, and the case is returned to that court, which is obliged to make a new decision by the urgent procedure.
– The Constitutional Court concluded that the regular court arbitrarily interpreted the relevant provisions of the law and the rulebook when it concluded that the appellant had not fulfilled the legal basis for registering the change of rights in the cadastral office. Also, the appellant’s right to equality of arms before the court was violated when the appellant did not have equal procedural and legal treatment with the intervener in the proceedings since the opposing party was not informed about his participation and the submitted response to the lawsuit – the verdict states.
On October 18, 2016, the Ministry of Defense of BiH, represented by the Attorney General’s Office of BiH, submitted to the Regional Unit of the Republic Administration for Geodetic and Property Affairs of Srpska in Foča a request for registration of change of rights to real estate with a total area of 254,568 square meters. in the land books, BiH – the Ministry of Defense in the Council of Ministers will be registered as the owner, and the Republic of Srpska – the Ministry of Defense of Srpska will be deleted.
The District Court in Trebinje concluded that there were no grounds for changing the entry in the cadastre because the appellant did not request it on the basis of a final court decision, a final decision of another competent authority, a court-certified contract or a notary, which are documents suitable for registration in the land register. in accordance with the Law on Maintenance of Surveys and Cadastre of Srpska.
The BiH Constitutional Court challenged the ruling and returned the case to the District Court for retrial.
The Ombudsman of the Republic of Srpska, Milimir Govedarica, said that this was just another in a series of attempts by the Attorney General’s Office of BiH, ie the Ministry of Defense, to register property rights in favor of BiH, contrary to the norms.
– All competent organizational units of the Attorney General’s Office of Srpska have taken and are taking all necessary actions in several such cases in order to protect the property of the Republic of Srpska – Govedarica added.
He pointed out that in the report on the work of the Attorney General’s Office of Srpska, adopted by the National Assembly of Srpska, he stated that he would continue to act in accordance with constitutional and legal provisions, until a special law is passed, ie an agreement between the Government of Republic of Srpska and the Council of Ministers.
– We called on all relevant institutions to use their legal powers with the aim of timely taking available legal remedies in order to prevent in time the military perspective and non-perspective property in the area of Srpska from being registered in BiH – said Govedarica.
Member of the Committee of the National Assembly for Constitutional Affairs Perica Bundalo says that the Constitutional Court of BiH has on many occasions so far expressed its intention to change the legal and political order in BiH.
– The Constitutional Court of BiH has long since started to go beyond its competences, and disputes regarding military property and especially agricultural land of Republic of Srpska only confirm that – said Bundalo, who is also the head of the PDP MPs’ Club in the Srpska Parliament.
TST
