Supreme Court rejects citizen's appeal on energy consumption norms

The Supreme Court of Uzbekistan did not accept a citizen's application seeking to annul the monthly social norm for electricity and natural gas consumption.

According to Kun.uz correspondent, citizen Mardon Subkhanov appealed to the Supreme Court to declare invalid the social norm established by the Cabinet of Ministers' decision of April 16, 2024, "On Additional Measures to Introduce Market Mechanisms in the Fuel and Energy Sector," which came into force on May 1, 2024.

However, by the judge's decision on June 19, the application was refused to be accepted for proceedings. The judge explained that the citizen's complaint does not fall under the jurisdiction of the administrative, civil, or economic courts. Therefore, based on Article 133, Part 1, Clause 1 of the Administrative Procedure Code, the application was refused to be accepted for proceedings.

On July 23, the appellate complaint by Subkhanov against this decision was reviewed by a panel of judges consisting of Sh. Saidov, D. Abukakhorova, and D. Karimov in the administrative affairs division of the Supreme Court.

According to the applicant's authorized representative (his son), who participated in the court session, the main goal is for someone to be held accountable for the legality of the Cabinet of Ministers' decision.

"The court must give an appropriate assessment of the matter. The decision of the Cabinet of Ministers, being a subordinate regulatory act, must not contradict the law in any case. Therefore, this is considered a matter of public law. It is said that the Constitutional Court should give an assessment. We will also file an application with the Constitutional Court and get an answer," said the applicant's authorized representative.

The representative of the Cabinet of Ministers cited several reasons and requested that the June 19 decision remain unchanged and that the appellate complaint be dismissed. Similarly, the prosecutor also requested that the decision remain unchanged.

In the end, the appellate panel found no grounds to annul the June 19 decision and decided to keep it unchanged.

According to the judicial panel, Article 27 (Matters Resolved by the Court) Part 1, Clause 1 of the Administrative Procedure Code stipulates that administrative courts resolve disputes regarding departmental normative legal acts.

According to Article 6 (Types of Normative Legal Acts) of the Law "On Normative Legal Acts," the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers is considered a normative legal act, and disputes over it do not fall under administrative jurisdiction.

According to the current legislation, the Constitutional Court assesses the legality of the government decision.