Information about the General Directorate of Emirate Cases of Ministry of Justice

The general directorate of Emirate Cases is one of the key and central administrations of the ministry of justice of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. This directorate was established in 1343, based upon the decision of that time government for the purpose of defending from the public rights and properties before the courts.

Before 1343, the legal litigations in defense of state owned administrations, compound institutions and enterprises concerning both movable and immovable properties was carried out by these institutions themselves.

These implementations were deficient, because when there was any dispute among the representatives in the trials they defended as representative of their own administrations. As both sides of the dispute were formed by government so the courts were confronted with real challenge upon issuing their verdicts. On other hand, these representatives were not professional in solving of this problem. Thus, in order to solve this problem, in 1343, the government of that time decided to establish a single administration called “State Cases” within the framework of the Ministry of Justice, to file lawsuits in civil cases and protect the state’s properties. For this reason, the government cases code was enacted in ten articles and propagated in the official gazette number (17) dated 1343/9/28 S.Y. Based on the provision of the forth article of the mentioned code, this administration consisted of one director, one deputy, a few counsels, defense attorneys and administrative staff, and according to second article of the mentioned code the government cases administration was obligated to defend the government interests and public institutions in disputes among the real persons as the representative of the government. The mentioned administration was defending the government properties and public interests in all legal litigations against the government in the courts and based on the third article of the above code the government cases administration was authorized to either conciliate with the opponents or refer the case to the arbitration. Then, in the 1344, curriculum of the government cases was enforced and published in (19) articles after the gazette number (17). Based on the 3^rd article of above curriculum the tasks of this administration were carried out as below.

In the center, the general director of Cases Administration would assign one or some defense attorneys on each legal dispute. In cases in which the subject of litigation were up to (20000) thousand Afghanis, the Cases Administration was authorized to conciliate itself. However, if the subject of legal litigation valued more than (20000) thousand Afghanis, or the other party to the dispute didn’t accept the conciliation, then, the case would be referred to the courts.

Likewise, in accordance with the provision of the afore said article, the representatives of the mentioned administrations were carrying out their duties under the auspices of governor, and until the state provincial representatives of State Cases were established in provinces, their duties were discharged by a composite board of deputy governor, prosecutor and provincial state accountant, and the legal litigation was brought to the court by one of the administrative members of governor appointed by the governor.

Cases which could reach a reconciliation would be enforced after the confirmation thereof by Cases Administration in the center and the governor in provinces.

Based on the provision of paragraph (d) of article (3) of afore said curriculum, the arbitrator was appointed by the Minister of Justice in the center and by the governor in provinces. The arbitrator’s decision was written in Sharei collateral and it was deemed final decision not revocable at appellate courts.

After that, in 1365, a law under the title of “Investigating the Financial Disputes and Cases Administration” published in No. (622) dated 30/9/1365 in official gazette, in 40 articles became applicable, and upon the enforcement of that law, the law enacted in 1343 was annulled. In accordance with the provision of article 14 of the above mentioned law the state institutions both as defendant or claimant were authorized to conciliate cases whose value was up to (5000000) Afghanis, and the cases whose value was more than that should have been referred to the Cases Administration.

On 1420 M.Y a code named the Islamic Emirate cases in (8) chapters and (38) articles was enforced and published on 1420 M.Y, 22 of Rabiul-sani the official gazette number (786) so the code of the official gazette of 1365/9/30 number (622) was abolished.

Thereafter on 1392 the government cases code enforced and published on 1392/6/30 in official gazette number (1115) at 4 chapter and 39 articles based on which the emirate cases code published in official gazette of 1420 M.Y, 22 rabiul-sani have been abolished.

Then, on 14/12/1397, pursuant to the provision of section (16) of article (64) and by the observance of article (79) of Afghanistan Constitution, in accordance with the cabinet of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan’s approval no. (21) Dated 14/12/1397 some additions and amendments were conducted to afore mentioned law, and finally it was enacted and endorsed in (4) chapters and (45) articles.

The formation of the general directorate of Emirate cases

The general director of emirate cases in the first grade, Director of Real Estate Cases in second grade, Director of Financial, Administrative and Commercial Cases in second grade, Director of Coordination and Regulation of Commission Secretariat of (prevention of land usurpation and restitution of usurped land) in the second grade and the Kabul emirate cases director in the second grade, the general directorate committee sub-directors and the provincial emirate cases sub-directors in third grade perform their tasks based on the law. The professional members in third and fourth grade and the administration services staffs occupy different grades to improve the professional, administrational and services.

The major duties of the general directorate of the emirate cases

The emirate cases administration have the below tasks and qualifications:

Filing lawsuit against real and legal persons who have usurped or trespassed on public properties;
Warding off of real and legal persons’ legal litigation against public properties before the courts;
Requesting the required documents and information from emirate bodies and other real or legal persons as to the respective dispute;
Requesting collaboration from the emirate institutions with regard to the identification of public properties;
Addressing to the legal disputes amongst emirate bodies regarding their properties;
Requesting technical, professional, productive, accounting examinations and others and enquiring of opinions from the experts in order to analyze the facts relating to the cases of the respective administrations;
Summoning of the persons who have usurped or trespassed on the public properties and other persons who have the required information or documents about the case under dispute to the courts;
Inviting the emirate officials in order to address the respective legal dispute or at the time of proceeding their cases in the courts in case of necessity;
Informing of emirate administration concerning the referral of the respective case to the court in order for their representative to participate in the proceeding session of the case in the court, in writing and with the mentioning of date of the convention of the judicial meeting;
Issuing of ruling on legal dispute resolution amongst emirate bodies with regard to their properties;
Carrying out other duties being assigned to them, within the limits of the provisions of law.