UNAT Held or UNDT Pronouncements
After completing his application, at the Tribunal’s request, the Applicant did not respond to 2 orders and 2 notifications from the Tribunal requesting him to submit his comments, if any, on the issue of receivability of the application raised by the Respondent in his reply. Given this, the Tribunal concluded that the Applicant was no longer interested in the outcome of legal proceedings he instituted and that the case should be closed for abandonment of proceedings.
Decision Contested or Judgment/Order Appealed
The Applicant, a former staff member of the Department of Safety and Security, United Nations Office in Vienna, contested the Secretary-General’s decision dated 22 July 2013 to dismiss him from service under staff rule 10.2(a)(ix).
Legal Principle(s)
Right to institute legal proceedings: the right to institute legal proceedings is a general principle of procedural law predicated upon the condition that the person using it has a legitimate interest in initiating and maintaining legal action. Access to the court has to be denied to those who are not in need of judicial remedy, as well as to those who are obviously no longer interested in the proceedings they instituted. Reopening of an application closed for abandonment of proceedings: The Tribunal will only consider reopening an application closed for abandonment of proceedings upon receipt of a motion to reinstate from a party providing the grounds for his failure to act, reasonably showing that failure to respond to the Tribunal`s orders was not intentional or the result of conscious indifference, and submitting evidence that it is the interests of justice to reinstate the proceedings.