Recently, Gevorg Gyozalyan, a member of the Association of Young Lawyers, was ordered out of the courtroom by Judge Astghik Kharatyan, Chairman of the Court of Appeals of Civil Cases, for playing with his mobile phone, which the judge called “a violation of court procedure.”

But as the young lawyer noted, the ban on cell-phones does not apply to Tigran Sahakyan, another of the three Appeals Court judges. “It’s become a habit for Sahakyan; when the hearing starts he walks out of the courtroom talking on the phone,” Gyozalyan said. “The same thing happened in a hearing on June 13 th. Sahakyan was talking to somebody on the phone; he made an arrangement, and walked out of the courtroom, still talking.”

The lawyer explained that the hearing had ended on June 13 th, and the judges were supposed to withdraw for deliberations, but Judge Kharatyan decided to postpone the case for a month, instead. “I asked her to provide a legal reasons for the delay. Kharatyan told me, ‘I have seven verdicts to write, are you going to do it for me?’” Giozalyan recounted. The lawyer sought the removal of Judges Kharatyan, Sahakyan, and Tumanyan, arguing that Judge Sahakyan had walked out of the courtroom to take care of personal matters. His challenge was denied. “I guess the logic is that only Tigran Sahakyan can play and talk on the phone during the hearing,” the lawyer said.

Mobile phones are the only modern technology that judges can use, and the new games that have come out have replaced worry beads as a way of keeping busy. Unethical though it may be, the judges even fiddle with their phones during hearings, perhaps trying to stave off boredom. Citizens’ earlier dissatisfaction with how judges started court sessions more than an hour late, postponed hearings for no reason and so on, are nothing compared to the anger caused by mobile phones, because of the total indifference to justice that it signals.

A presiding judge can even take care of personal matters through a trial, constantly going in and out of the courtroom, a phone in his hand, and still come to a verdict in the end. That’s what Judge Levon Grigoryan of the Court of Appeals of Civil Cases did on March 10 th, as he heard a complaint from a group of student at the Medical University who had not been exempted from paying tuition fees. As the students were providing evidence for their claim that the Ministry of Education had given preferential treatment to other students, the judge was busy on the phone, taking two separate calls. He left the courtroom, talking on the phone. He came back in, still talking, and denied the students’ complaint.