Constitutional Court

KI143/19, Applicant: Agim Thaqi, Constitutional review of the Decision of the Court of Appeals [Ac. no. 3297/15], of 8 March 2019

KI143/19, Resolution on Inadmissibility, of 16 January 2020, published on 28 January 2020

Keywords: Individual referral, employment dispute, out of time

The Applicant is Agim Thaqi residing in Prizren, who had filed a claim against the Kosovo Energy Corporation (KEK) because of his dismissal from work. He had, by a claim, requested to be reinstated to the job position, which he had exercised at the time of his dismissal. The first instance court rejected his claim, and he subsequently filed an appeal with the District Court in Prizren, which rejected his appeal, too. Thereupon the Applicant submitted a revision to the Supreme Court, which approved the Applicant’s revision and decided to reinstate him to his job position.

Following the decision of the Supreme Court, the Applicant submitted a proposal for the enforcement of the Judgment of the Supreme Court. The Municipal Court in Prizren allowed the enforcement and ordered KEK to return the Applicant to work. By a notification on reinstatement to job position KEK notified the Applicant about his return to work, but to another job position, because the job position in which he used to work previously due to the privatization was now a part of KEDS, hence they were not able to assign him to that job position because now it belonged to another enterprise. On this basis KEK addressed a submission to the Basic Court stating that it had fulfilled its obligation under the enforcement decision. The Basic Court, by its Decision, had ruled that the debtor in the present case KEK had fulfilled its obligation stemming from the enforcement order. The same was confirmed also by the Court of Appeals, which rejected the Applicant’s appeal as unfounded. The State Prosecutor also rejected the Applicant’s proposal to initiate a procedure for the protection of legality.

The Applicant alleged before the Constitutional Court that the judicial decisions of the regular courts, namely Decision [Ac. no. 3297/15] of the Court of Appeals, of 8 March 2019 violates his rights guaranteed by Articles 24 [Equality Before the Law], 31 [Right to Fair and Impartial Trial], 32 [Right to Legal Remedies] and 49 [Right to Work and Exercise Profession] of the Constitution.

The Court, having examined the case, noted that the last final decision is the Decision of the Court of Appeals of 8 March 2019 which was received by the Applicant on 28 March 2019, a fact proved also by the Court’s acknowledgment of receipt, and the Referral submitted to the Constitutional Court on 13 September 2019.

Therefore, based on the foregoing, it results that the Referral was not filed within the legal deadline provided by Article 49 of the Law and Rule 39 (1) (c) of the Rules of Procedure, and must be declared inadmissible because it is out of time.