Supreme Court and the General Staff
Article 261 – Once a file reaches the Supreme Court, the director or one of his or her deputies will refer the case to one of the branches of the Supreme Court with respect to the turn and chronological order of receipt. The receiving branches will process the files in turn, unless there is an urgency to review the case due to a specific law or to the determination of the director of Supreme Court or the Head of Branch.
Article 262 – Once a file is referred to a branch it cannot be referred to a third branch unless otherwise admitted by law.
Note – Observing this rule applies to all investigations in other courts.
Article 263 – The head of the branch shall review the referral cases in person and prepare the report or designate it in turn to the other branch members. The mentioned member shall prepare the file report containing the process and will conduct a thorough review of the appeal and the respective legal aspects (in a reasonable way), and present it to the head of branch.
Note – While preparing the report, the head or member of the branch is bound to reasonably mention in detail any violation of law, specific intention or unawareness of judiciary principles observed from the judges who were involved in the file. A copy of this report will be forwarded to the Supreme Disciplinary Court with the order of the head of branch.
Article 264 - While a file is being reviewed in the Supreme Court, the parties to the claim and their attorneys are not summoned unless the reviewing branch deems their presence necessary. However, their absence will not delay the review and conclusion of the decision.
Article 265 – In the process of review, the auditing member will recite the file report and the necessary items of the documents. If the parties to the claim or their attorneys are present, they can express their statements with the permission of the head of branch. The representative for the Attorney General will express his opinion regarding the legal aspects of the review. Then members of the branch will make a decision with the majority of their votes, taking into consideration the contents of the file, the report, the statements of the respective people, and the Attorney General’s representative. Decision making is done as follows:
A- The file will be approved and returned to the issuing court if the sentence was in accordance with the law and in line with the existing evidence in the file.
B- In cases where the verdict is issued by an incompetent court, or it is issued without a legal procedure, or with no consideration of the testimonies and the defense of the parties, and if the mentioned issues are so important that the verdict is not legally valid or it is against Sharia or law, the issued verdict is voided and processed as follows:
1- If the act for which the person is convicted of, even if it was proven that the act was not a crime or cannot be pursued due to public amnesty or other legal rationales, then the verdict is voided with no further referral.
2- If the issued verdict is in the form of a warrant, or if the verdict is voided due to lack of an investigation, it will be referred to the issuing court for further review.
3- If the verdict is voided due to the incompetency of the court, the case will be forwarded to a competent court determined by the Supreme Court and the designated court is bound to review it.
4- In other instances, the case will be referred to a parallel court after being voided.
Note – Whenever the Supreme Court voids a verdict due to lack of an investigation, it must detail the deficiencies.
Article 266 – The investigating body within the Supreme Court will act as follows after having voided the verdict:
A- If the warrant is voided in the Supreme Court, it should be essentially considered compatible with the Supreme Court.
B- If the verdict is voided because of the lack of an investigation, the verdict will be sent down once all mentioned items are performed according to the Supreme Court.
C- In cases apart from the above mentioned items, the court can issue an insisted verdict.[2] If this sentence can be further appealed and the justifications expressed by the court are accepted, a branch will confirm the sentence. Otherwise, the case will be discussed in the General Board of the Criminal branches and if the opinion of that branch of the Supreme Court is approved, the sentence will be voided, and therefore the case will be referred to another branch. The receiving court will issue the verdict according to the justifications of the General Board of the Supreme Court. This verdict is definite except in cases mentioned in Article 235 of this code.
Article 267 – If the Attorney General following the regulations requests an appeal, he can assign one of his assistants from the prosecution office of the Supreme Court to be present as his representative in the branch of the Supreme Court and express his opinion on the subject.
Article 268 – Has been voided. (Amendment dated 28-07-1381[October 10, 2002] Article 39 of the attachment to the Code of Establishing Public and Revolutionary Courts)
Article 269 – The General Prosecution Office will receive the request for void according to the previous article, and will register according to the regulations if the file is complete with all the attachments, documentation and the court fee. The file will be presented to the Attorney General, and he will review it to see whether the claim is accurate while considering the contradiction between the sentence and Sharia law and legal standards. If it is accurate, he will mention the reasoning and request the Supreme Court to void the sentence. If the Supreme Court voids the sentence, the case will be referred to a parallel court.
Note 1 – If the presented request is incomplete, the General Prosecution Office will inform the presenter to improve the deficiencies within 10 days. There will be no further action taken if required measurements are not taken within the deadline.
Note 2 – Once the Attorney general requests the Supreme Court to void a sentence, the implementation of the sentence is postponed until the end of the investigation by the Supreme Court.
Note 3- The issued verdicts of the two above-mentioned articles cannot be objected or appealed except for cases mentioned in article (235) of this Code.
Article 270 – If there are different verdicts issued by any of the branches of the Supreme Court or any other courts for similar cases including legal, criminal or non-litigious matters based on the regulations, and if the director of Supreme Court or the Attorney General are informed about this, then they are bound to request the opinion of the General Board in order to establish consistency. Any of the judges from branches of the Supreme Court or other courts can also request the opinion of the General Board through the director of the Supreme Court of the Attorney general, stating all the arguments. The General Board of the Supreme Court will be formed with the following groups to review and make a proper decision: director of the Supreme Court or his deputy as the head, presence of the Attorney General or his representative, and at least three fourths of the directors, Advisors and Deputies of all branches. The majority of the opinions/votes based on Sharia’s standards are the criteria. The opinion of the General Board of the Supreme Court is not effective on the definite sentences. However, it is necessary to be followed by the branches of the Supreme Court and other courts in similar circumstances.
Article 271 – The verdicts of the General Board of the Supreme Court cannot be appealed but will be ineffective according to law.
