The Supreme Court overturned the illegal decision of the HCJ in the case of a Kyiv judge who had been groundlessly denied appointment since 2019

On October 23, 2025, the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court put an end to the case of Maryna Lozynska, a judge of the Solomianskyi District Court of Kyiv, who since 2019 had been unable to be reappointed as a judge due to manipulations with the label of "dishonesty," Apostrophe reports.

This story began in 2010, when the President appointed Lozynska as a judge for five years. After the 2016 reform, all "five-year judges" had to undergo a qualification assessment. In 2019, the panel of the High Qualification Commission of Judges recognized her as qualified. However, the Public Integrity Council (PIC) issued a negative conclusion. The panel's decision was supposed to come into force after the plenary session of the HQCJ. But a force majeure occurred: in November 2019, the commission's powers expired.

The uncertainty lasted until 2023. In order not to paralyze the courts, in 2020, the parliament adopted a Law that allowed the High Council of Justice to submit proposals to the President without the recommendation of the HQCJ, if the panel had already recognized the judge as qualified.

On December 22, 2020, the HCJ did so, and Lozynska waited for the President's decree. But in 2023, the HQCJ revived, decided to "finish the game," and on January 29, 2024, recognized the judge as unqualified. And it submitted a request for her dismissal to the HCJ.

In turn, Lozynska appealed to the court. The Cassation Administrative Court in July 2025 canceled the HQCJ's decision. The Commission filed an appeal, but the Grand Chamber on October 23 left everything unchanged.

The court was guided by the principle of predictability, as Judge Lozynska legitimately expected that after the HCJ's submission, her career was protected. This is Article 8 of the Convention on Human Rights: respect for private life, including access to a profession.

The court also indicated that the HQCJ's discretion is not unlimited. The Commission violated Part 2 of Article 19 of the Constitution: it acted beyond its powers.

The court referred to the practice of the ECHR and the Constitutional Court: the state cannot "replay" completed procedures.

So now there is a precedent, and all "replays" of the HQCJ can be successfully challenged in favor of judges, as these HQCJ procedures contradicted European principles.

We remind you that recently, the head of the Temporary Investigative Commission in the Rada, People's Deputy Serhiy Vlasenko reported that a criminal case has been opened against HQCJ officials based on the parliamentary investigative commission's statement regarding possible manipulations during the competitive selection of appellate court judges. This was preceded by the interrogation of the head of the

HQCJ Andriy Pasichnyk, who could not explain why he checked the competitive works of candidates at home instead of at his workplace, in a special information system, who gave him these works, and why he burned them after checking.