Prague, March 2 (CTK) – The Czech Supreme Administrative Court (NSS) rejected yesterday a cassation complaint by physicist Ivan Ostadal and Charles University (UK) over President Milos Zeman’s inactivity in the case of Ostadal’s appointment as professor, but it complied with another complaint, it writes on its website.
The NSS complied with their complaint aimed against Zeman’s decision not to appoint Ostadal, the website writes.
Ostadal and UK challenged last year’s verdict by the Prague Municipal Court that rejected their complaint against Zeman’s inactivity.
According to the complaint, the president’s inactivity lay in his not signing Ostadal’s appointing decree, citing his contacts with the former communist secret police (StB) among the reasons.
The Municipal Court previously concluded that Zeman had already made the decision, and consequently he was not inactive any more. The court argued with Zeman’s letter to Education Minister Katerina Valachova (Social Democrats, CSSD) in which he wrote that he would not appoint Ostadal.
The NSS upheld the lower level court’s verdict. It also said Zeman’s decision not to appoint a nominee professor is not subject to countersigning by the prime minister, unlike his decision to appoint a nominee.
“The president’s decision not to apply this power of his may be considered detrimental by those who expected him to apply it. However, it usually does not have fundamental constitutional and political consequences,” the NSS judge-rapporteur, Pavel Molek, said.
The other complaint filed by Ostadal and UK was aimed against Zeman’s decision as such, but the Municipal Court previously rejected it as too belated. The NSS cancelled the verdict yesterday and returned the case to the Municipal Court for further proceedings.
Along with Ostadal, Zeman did not appoint another two proposed candidates for professors, Fajt, director of the National Gallery (NG) in Prague, and Jan Eichler, from the University of Economics (VSE).
Fajt has also failed with his legal complaint. The Supreme Administrative Court received his cassation complaint in February.
Since Zeman’s refusal to appoint the three candidates, he has received three lists of other proposed professors that the government approved. Zeman has not rejected any of these candidate.
On the basis of an agreement with Zeman, the education minister regularly passes on the appointment decrees to new professors. This used to be the president’s duty in the past.
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