Constitutional Court

KI180/20, Applicant: Agim Stublla, Constitutional review of Judgment [C. No. 753/15], of the Basic Court in Prishtina, of 28 February 2017

KI 180/20, Resolution adopted on 18 February 2021, published on 13 April 2021

Keywords: individual referral, out of time referral, inadmissible referral.

In the circumstances of the present case, the Applicant was employed in a capacity of a Police Officer in the Kosovo Police from 12 March 2001. However, the General Directorate of Kosovo Police, by Decision [P. No. 122/VDP/201o] of 19 November 2010, has terminated the employment relationship of the Applicant. The Applicant filed a statement of claim with the Basic Court of Prishtina regarding the termination of the employment relationship, claiming that the latter was unlawful. However, the Basic Court rejected his allegations, and the decision of the latter was also upheld by the Court of Appeals. The Applicant challenges before the Court the findings of the regular courts, without accurately clarifying what fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution have allegedly been violated by the challenged act of public authority.

In assessing the Applicant’s Referral, the Court found that the Applicant’s Referral was submitted out of the legal deadline of four (4) months. This is because the Applicant challenges the Judgment [C. No. 753/15] of 28 February 2017 of the Basic Court and which, based on the appeal he submitted to the Court of Appeals, was served on him no later than 25 April 2017, while the Judgment of the Court of Appeals, namely the Judgment [Ac. No. 2329/2017] of 9 March 2020, rendered following his appeal against the abovementioned Judgment of the Basic Court, based on the relevant acknowledgment of receipt, was served on him on 26 June 2019. The Applicant’s Referral was submitted to the Court on 26 November 2020, namely (i) more than three (3) years after the issuance of the Judgment of the Basic Court; and (ii) five (5) months after receiving the Judgment of the Court of Appeals, and consequently out of the four (4) month period specified in the abovementioned provisions of the Law and the Rules of Procedure.

Therefore, the Referral was declared inadmissible because it was not submitted within the legal deadline of four (4) months as established in Article 49 of the Law and Rule 39 (1) (c) of the Rules of Procedure.