SUPREME Court President Štefan Harabin will now spend only three days a week in the office, after the Judicial Council on September 19 approved his request to work from home on Mondays and Fridays, the Sme daily reported.
The Office of the Supreme Court president explained that Harabin presented his request as an ordinary judge.
“He asked to work from home because he is chair and member of an appellate senate which passes rulings on the most serious crimes,” the office wrote in a statement published by the SITA newswire.
The six members of the Judicial Council who permitted the arrangement ignored a question by a Supreme Court judge, Miroslav Gavalec, about whether it would be possible to run the court from home; they also ignored an internal rule that a judge cannot stay home on days when his senate has hearings. They also ignored the fact that Harabin still lacks a deputy who can substitute for him in his absence.
The only question Harabin had to respond to was how much time it would take him to make it to the court in emergency cases. He said that while it would take him 30 minutes when he is in Bratislava, when he is at home in the village of Hranovnica in Prešov Region it could take him up to five hours.
