Obstruction in the registration of deans in the court register, will everything end with lawsuits and a report to the HJPC?

By Amra Vrabac

The University of Sarajevo has sent an urgent request to the Municipal Court in Sarajevo, demanding the prompt registration of authorized persons of the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Medicine, Dean Zinka Grbo and acting Dean Amina Valjevac, in the legal entity registry.

By obstructing this process by the Municipal Court in Sarajevo itself, the diplomas of several hundred students, which are supposed to be signed and handed over at a ceremony planned for December 18, are being jeopardized. However, if this legal saga continues and the Municipal Court refuses to register the changes, the ceremony itself could be postponed, putting students at a disadvantage.

As confirmed to Patria by the Dean of the Faculty of Law UNSA, Zinka Grbo, an urgent request was sent this morning to the President of the Municipal Court in Sarajevo, Janja Jovanović, and the Registry Department for Legal Entities, by the Faculty of Law UNSA, requesting the registration of the change of authorized representative.

Grbo was elected Dean on September 24, 2021, and the application for registration, i.e., change of authorized representative, was submitted on October 5. The Municipal Court has not processed the change of data for almost two months.

“The halting of the procedure for registering the change of authorized representative, we note, without any basis in the Law on Registration of Business Entities, represents a gross violation of this Law, as well as the Law on Higher Education of Sarajevo Canton and the Statute of the University of Sarajevo, on the basis of which the procedure for electing the new dean was validly conducted. The University of Sarajevo - Faculty of Law will be forced to use all legal mechanisms at its disposal if the law is not complied with and the mentioned change is not registered,” states the urgent request, which Patria has seen.

Acting Dean of the Faculty of Medicine UNSA, Amina Valjevac, confirmed in a conversation with Patria that the University of Sarajevo will send an urgent request regarding registration in the court register, i.e., change of data.

When asked whether the Faculty of Medicine UNSA would withdraw its appeal, which is being considered by the Cantonal Court in Sarajevo, and due to which outcome, according to the Municipal Court, the registration process for the deans has been halted, Valjevac could not answer precisely.

“The most important thing now is to resolve the situation with the diplomas and students, and then we will see,” said Valjevac.

In a press release issued by the Rectorate of the University of Sarajevo on December 1, it is stated that they have been informed by the Municipal Court in Sarajevo that no change of data and deposit of signatures will occur until the Cantonal Court in Sarajevo decides on the appeals of six UNSA faculties against the decision of the Municipal Court in Sarajevo regarding the executed status change (legal integration) of the University.

(In addition to the Faculty of Medicine, appeals were also filed by the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Transport and Communications, Faculty of Economics, Faculty of Political Sciences, and the Faculty of Agriculture and Food Sciences).

“University findings indicate that the appeals of the organizational units have been assigned for resolution to a council of three judges who must ultimately decide on all appeals simultaneously, as the cases are linked. However, due to the delay in proceedings by certain judges, the University does not know the outcome of this decision to this day,” the statement said.

As Patria learns unofficially, the possibility of reporting this case to the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC) is not excluded, especially considering the public interest of both the University of Sarajevo and several hundred students. 

Furthermore, legal experts believe that these two processes should not be linked, and that the registration of data changes in the court register is a separate process from the decision on the appeal regarding legal integration. Otherwise, the Faculty of Law is not among the six faculties that have filed appeals regarding the legal integration process, which further casts doubt on the actions of the Municipal Court in Sarajevo and the halting of processes at UNSA faculties.