Kićović v. Montenegro

SECOND SECTION

Application no. 44295/11 Zoran KIĆOVIĆ against Montenegro

(see appended table)

The European Court of Human Rights (Second Section), sitting on 14 November 2019 as a Committee composed of:

Arnfinn Bårdsen, President, Ivana Jelić, Darian Pavli, judges,

and Liv Tigerstedt, Acting Deputy Section Registrar,

Having regard to the above application lodged on 20 June 2011,

Having regard to the observations submitted by the respondent Government and the observations in reply submitted by the applicant,

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

FACTS AND PROCEDURE

The applicant’s details are set out in the appended table.

The applicant’s complaints under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention concerning the excessive length of administrative proceedings were communicated to the Montenegrin Government (“the Government”).

THE LAW

In the present application, having examined all the material before it, the Court considers that for the reasons stated below the respondent Government cannot be held liable for the excessive length of the impugned administrative proceedings.

In particular, the Court notes that the Government raised a preliminary objection of non-compliance with the six-month time-limit, claiming that the applicant’s complaints were lodged out of time. They therefore invited the Court to declare the application inadmissible in accordance with Article 35 §§ 1 and 4 of the Convention.

The applicant, following the final decision by the Supreme Court of 21 December 2009, lodged a constitutional appeal which was dismissed on 24 March 2010. The Court observes that in the respondent State a constitutional appeal was not considered an effective remedy in respect of length of proceedings until 20 March 2015 (see, Boucke v. Montenegro , no. 26945/06, §§ 76-79, 21 February 2012; Siništaj and Others v. Montenegro , nos. 1451/10 and 2 others, § 123, 24 November 2015; and Vučeljić v. Montenegro (dec.), no. 59129/15, § 31, 18 October 2016). It was thus not a remedy which the applicant was required to use (contrast, Vujović and Lipa D.O.O v. Montenegro , no. 18912/15, § 32, 20 February 2018). Therefore, the six-month period in the present case should be counted from the Supreme Court’s decision of 21 December 2009.

Since the current application was lodged on 20 June 2011, the Court allows the Government’s objection and finds that the application was lodged outside the six-month time-limit and therefore must be rejected in accordance with Article 35 §§ 1 and 4 of the Convention.

For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,

Declares the application inadmissible.

Done in English and notified in writing on 5 December 2019.

Liv Tigerstedt Arnfinn Bårdsen Acting Deputy Registrar President

APPENDIX

Application raising complaints under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention

(excessive length of administrative proceedings)

Application no.

Date of introduction

Applicant’s name

Date of birth

Start of proceedings

End of proceedings

Total length

Levels of jurisdiction

Relevant domestic decision

44295/11

20/06/2011

Zoran Kićović

07/11/1953

16/12/2004

21/12/2009

5 year(s)

2 level(s) of jurisdiction

Supreme Court Uvp.263/09

21/12/2009