MOSCOW, May 6 (RAPSI) – The Communist Party group in the State Duma has appealed to the Constitutional Court to terminate the reform under which the Supreme Commercial Court is to be abolished, Kommersant newspaper writes.

President Vladimir Putin signed a law merging the Supreme Court with the Supreme Commercial Court on February 6.

The Constitutional Court has agreed to hear the Communists’ appeal to invalidate the amendment to the constitution titled On the Supreme Court and the Prosecutor’s Office. The appeal has been signed by all 91 members of the Communist Party group, or over 20% of deputies, which is fully in line with the requirement.

The Communist Party was the only party in parliament to support the Supreme Commercial Court and the country’s legal elite by voting against the presidential bills on the reform of the supreme courts, the newspaper writes.

Since the Constitutional Court cannot amend the constitution, from which any reference to the Supreme Commercial Court has been removed, the opposition party has contested the transitional norms on the timeframe and on the procedure for dissolving the Supreme Commercial Court and creating a united Supreme Court in its place. The bulk of the complaint deals with the unconstitutionality of the procedures used to draft and approve the disputed amendment.

The Communist Party argues that the procedure approved for implementing this reform has ultimately “subordinated the judicial authority, in the form of the Supreme Commercial Court and the Supreme Court, to the president and the legislative branch,” which is contrary to the norms of the constitutional system.

The lawmakers recall that under the constitution, the Supreme Commercial Court is empowered by the people to guarantee the equality of all before the law in the sphere of economic disputes and to ensure the effective operation of commercial courts and the right of economic operators to judicial protection.