Az Alkotmánybíróság határozatai 2016. február 15. és április 20. között

Absztrakt

The Constitutional Court (CC) decided 68 cases between 15 February and 20 April, 2016. Most of the cases dealing with basic rights were about right to information. In two cases the President of Hungary turned to the CC and initiated preventive norm control of two acts of Parliament before promulgation. One of them was to amend the act on the Monetary Bank of Hungary. According to the amendment the foundations and enterprises established or formed by the Monetary Bank are not to give information on any of their activity in connection with the Monetary Bank or its activity. This meant to disclose information formerly accessible. According to the amendment the restriction on right to information was to apply also in requests initiated prior to the amendment. According to the amendment the nature of budget money coming from/through the Monetary Bank “transforms” into private property within the foundations and enterprises of the Monetary Bank. Therefore any information on this type of money falls outside the right to information. The CC found the amendment unconstitutional stating: budget money can’t lose its “budgetary” nature; therefore, it is against the constitution to reject any request of information in connection with it. The other act reviewed by the CC on the President’s initiation was the amendment of the act on the Hungarian General Post Office. Formerly the act restricted to receive information on certain documents. According to the amendment the restriction was to apply to certain data only. According to the CC as long as the amendment can be interpreted constitutionally (in connection with the act on information) this amendment is constitutional (the new rules don’t restrict the right to information). In another case the CC ruled that – as long as the Act on the Parliament is interpreted according to the Act on Information and Public Data – the rule on the register of the House Committee of the Parliament is not against the Constitution. According to the Act on the Parliament the register of the House Committee (which basically decides on how the Parliament functions: its agenda, how the rules of the House should be interpreted, esp. when it is debated among the fractions, etc.) is not public information. The CC ruled this means that on request the Parliament (or on appeal the court) has to examine which certain data in the requested register fall within the term “data necessary for draft documents” in the Act on Information and Public Data. The term has to be interpreted narrowly – since it is a restriction on the right to information – otherwise the refusal of the request on information from the register of the House Committee is against the constitution.