The First Lawsuit Successfully Won by Sayat Zholshy & Partners in the Newly Established Specialised Interdistrict Administrative Court

With effect from 1 July 2021, Kazakhstan introduced new Code of Administrative Procedure and Proceedings No. 350-VI (the “CAPP”) resulting in the establishment of new Specialised Interdistrict Administrative Courts with jurisdiction over conflicts involving actions/omissions of government authorities and officers thereof.

On 2 July 2021, just in one day after the inception of the new Almaty City Specialised Interdistrict Administrative Court, the SZP Dispute Resolution team filed a lawsuit, on behalf of a Client, challenging an unfavourable customs administrative act in full compliance with the new CAPP.

On 27 September 2021, the aforementioned Court tried the administrative case in accordance with the new rules of administrative proceedings and granted a judgment in favour of our Client subject to which our claim was fully sustained and the unfavourable customs administrative act was invalidated and annulled.

This particular case was handled by SZP Senior Partner Vitaliy Vodolazkin, the head of the SZP Dispute Resolution Practice.

“We are happy to share with everyone the news.  Obviously, it was a new experience for us.  Although the CAPP was adopted quite a while ago, it started to operate only this summer.  Therefore, we have had sufficient time to delve into the specifics of the new rules of procedure.  We have been looking very much forward to the opportunity to test the new administrative justice system in practice.  It happened that we filed the lawsuit, on behalf of our Client, against customs authorities just in one day after the newly established Almaty City Specialised Interdistrict Administrative Court had started to operate.  The Court allowed the claim and adjudicated in favour of our Client.  The first instance proceedings took almost three months, which is commensurate with the amount of time earlier taken to try similar cases in economic courts.  It is important for us to note the never-seen-before scrupulous accuracy of new administrative court in collecting and examining evidence.  Now we gear ourselves up for counteraction,” says Vitaliy Vodolazkin, Senior Partner with Sayat Zholshy & Partners.

For over 20 years, Sayat Zholshy & Partners has been specialising in resolving and managing disputes involving government authorities, including, but not limited to, tax, customs and antitrust authorities.  SZP Dispute Resolution Practice has been repeatedly awarded and ranked by many international legal guides and rating agencies.