Provincial People's Court tried an administrative case

No attendance, no legal authorization

Statistics from the Provincial People's Court show that: In 2023, the two-level People's Court of the province received 50 administrative cases, of which 19 cases were resolved (reaching a rate of 38%). In the first 6 months of 2024, the number of administrative cases received and processed by the Provincial People's Court was 58 cases. Of these, 50 cases were related to the land sector, accounting for more than 86% of the total number of administrative cases.

The number of administrative cases handled and resolved by the court in the first 6 months of 2024 was 116% compared to the whole year of 2023. Part of the reason is that the number of cases that have not been processed in 2023 has been transferred. If this situation is not handled, the backlog of cases will increase over time.

Despite many efforts, the Provincial People's Court still faces many difficulties and obstacles in resolving administrative cases. Some agencies, organizations and People's Committees have not closely coordinated with the court, and have not even fulfilled their responsibilities according to the law in providing complete and timely documents and evidence.

Notably, on June 13, 2024, the Provincial People's Court organized a dialogue and mediation session to resolve the administrative case related to the plaintiff's request to "perform administrative acts" against the People's Committee of Hue City. In this case, Mr. TT D. (residing in An Cuu Ward, Hue City) filed a petition requesting the court to resolve "Forcing the People's Committee of Hue City to stop the act of refusing to grant the Certificate of Land Use Rights for land plot No. 29, map sheet 42 on Nguyen Khoa Chiem Street, An Cuu Ward, Hue City. At the same time, requesting the court to cancel the previous official dispatch of the People's Committee of Hue City regarding the settlement of his petition. Forcing the People's Committee of Hue City to grant the Certificate of Land Use Rights, House Ownership Rights and Other Assets Attached to Land for the above land plot to Mr. TT D. as the representative of the heirs".

However, the dialogue could not take place as planned due to the absence of a Vice Chairman of the Hue City People's Committee, the representative of the Hue City People's Committee who was requested to participate in the dialogue. The person appointed as a replacement did not have the functions, duties, nor did he have a legal authorization letter. This caused the case handling process to be interrupted and prolonged. The failure of the representative of the Hue City People's Committee to fully participate in the dialogue and mediation process not only affected the progress of the court but also caused inconvenience to the people, wasting a lot of time and effort...

Another case has been accepted by the court for 8 months, but has not yet been concluded due to the delay in providing documents and evidence by the People's Committee of Hue City. Recently, the People's Committees of Phu Loc District and Huong Thuy Town... sometimes sent representatives to participate in the proceedings that were not the right subjects according to the law, or did not send representatives to participate in the trial, leading to the postponement of the trial, the dialogue session, prolonging the time to resolve the case.

Improve coordination

Administrative cases are mostly lawsuits requesting the cancellation of administrative decisions of the People's Committee and the Chairman of the People's Committee at the district level in the field of land, such as: Requests to cancel the Certificate of Land Use Rights (red book), compensation cases, site clearance and resettlement. The Court has tried and invested time to collect evidence and coordinate with relevant agencies to resolve this type of case well. At the same time, the units have focused on dialogue, creating favorable conditions for the parties to dialogue so that they can handle the case thoroughly, without going to court together.

Every year, the Party Committee of the Provincial People's Court and the Provincial People's Committee have signed a Coordination Regulation to ensure consistent and unified leadership in directing agencies, units, district-level People's Committees, commune-level People's Committees and the leadership of the Party Committee of the Provincial People's Court over specialized courts under the Provincial People's Court and district-level People's Courts in coordinating the provision of information and collection of evidence to serve the settlement and trial of all types of cases, especially administrative and civil cases.

This helps improve work efficiency, complete judicial reform tasks, and bring benefits to people when participating in administrative litigation relations. The Provincial People's Committee has also issued a document directing specialized agencies, public service units under the Provincial People's Committee, People's Committees of districts, towns and cities to strengthen coordination in participating in resolving related cases at the Provincial People's Court and District People's Court.

In such a context, the Provincial People's Court needs more drastic direction from the Provincial People's Committee to provincial agencies and units, district People's Committees, and commune People's Committees to improve coordination with the court system, ensuring that the process of collecting evidence and adjudicating goes smoothly, thereby quickly and effectively resolving administrative cases, meeting the practical needs of adjudication work, bringing fairness and justice to the people.

Article and photos: THAI SON