Judgment of the Court Grand Chamber of 13 July 2023, YP and Others Lifting of a judge's immunity and his or her suspension from duties, C-615/20 and C-671/20

• Date: 13 July 2023

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I. VALUES OF THE UNION: RULE OF LAW – JUDICIAL INDEPENDENCE

Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber) of 13 July 2023, YP and Others (Lifting of a judge's

immunity and his or her suspension from duties), C-615/20 and C-671/20

Link to the full text of the judgment

References for a preliminary ruling – Second subparagraph of Article 19(1) TEU – Rule of law – Effective

legal protection in the fields al by Union law – Independence of judges – Primacy of EU law – Article 4(3)

TEU – Duty of sincere cooperation – Lifting of a judge’s immunity from prosecution and his or her

suspension from duties ordered by the Izba Dyscyplinarna (Disciplinary Chamber) of the Sąd Najwyższy

(Supreme Court, Poland) – Lack of independence and impartiality on the part of that chamber – Alteration

of the composition of the court formation called on to adjudicate on a case which up to that time had

been entrusted to that judge – Prohibitions on national courts calling into question the legitimacy of a

court, on undermining its functioning or on assessing the legality or effectiveness of the appointment of

judges or of their judicial powers, subject to disciplinary penalties – Obligation on the courts concerned

and the bodies which have power to designate and modify the composition of court formations to

disapply the measures lifting immunity and suspending the judge concerned – Obligation on the same

courts and bodies to disapply the national provisions providing for those prohibitions)

Case C-615/20

On the basis of an indictment from the Prokuratura Okręgowa w Warszawie (Warsaw Regional Public

Prosecutor’s Office, Poland), YP and other defendants were prosecuted before the Sąd Okręgowy w

Warszawie (Regional Court, Warsaw, Poland) on the grounds of a series of criminal offences. That case

was assigned to a single-Judge formation of that court, composed of Judge I.T.

When that case was at a very advanced stage of the proceedings, the Prokuratura Krajowa Wydział

Spraw Wewnętrznych (National Public Prosecutor’s Office, Internal Affairs Division, Poland), on

14 February 2020, applied to the Disciplinary Chamber of the Sąd Najwyższy (Supreme Court,

Poland)

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for leave to prosecute Judge I.T. for having, in December 2017, allowed media

representatives to record footage and sounds during a hearing and during the delivery of the decision

in the case concerned and the oral statement of reasons for it and, in so doing, allegedly disclosed

information deriving from the investigation procedure of the Warsaw Regional Public Prosecutor’s

Office in the case at issue.

By a resolution of 18 November 2020 (‘the resolution at issue’), the Disciplinary Chamber authorised

the initiation of criminal proceedings against Judge I.T., suspended him from his duties and reduced

the amount of his remuneration by 25% for the duration of that suspension.

The referring court, which is the formation of the Warsaw Regional Court hearing the criminal

proceedings initiated, inter alia, against YP and on which Judge I.T. sits as a single Judge, notes that the

resolution at issue is such as to prevent it from being able to continue those proceedings. In that

context, it decided to stay the proceedings to ask the Court of Justice, in essence, about the

compatibility with EU law of national provisions which confer on a body, whose independence and

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The Law on the Supreme Court, of 8 December 2017, established within the Sąd Najwyższy (Supreme Court, Poland), a new disciplinary

chamber known as the Izba Dyscyplinarna (‘the Disciplinary Chamber’). By a law of 20 December 2019 amending the Law on the Supreme

Court, which entered into force in 2020, new powers were conferred on that chamber, in particular to authorise t he initiation of criminal

proceedings against judges or to place them in provisional detention (Article 27(1)(1a)).