No Constitutional Court Judges Have Applied for Early Retirement

On December 11, 2019, the National Assembly fully approved the draft law on the establishment of an early retirement system for Constitutional Court judges in the second reading.

The law was in effect until today, but by the end of working hours, none of the seven judges of the Constitutional Court, including the president, accepted the government's proposal, which stipulated that if they resigned before the law came into force today, they would receive a pension equal to their salary until the end of their term. Taxpayers would have to pay more than 600 million drams for this. The law applied to judges elected before April 9, 2018: Hrayr Tovmasyan, Alvina Gyulumyan, Felix Tokhyan, Arevik Petrosyan, Arayik Tunyan, Ghrant Nazaryan, and Ashot Khachatryan.

These judges have rejected the government’s offer of payment for not working. The proposal does not concern Vahe Grigoryan, who has not attended work since his election.

However, the government has initiated a constitutional referendum, and if 650,000 people vote in favor of the referendum, the powers of these judges will be terminated. However, legal experts argue that this will not go without consequences for Armenia.