A court in Uralsk has imposed a fine for abuse of procedural rights after a representative falsely claimed that the plaintiff did not speak Russian, reports infohub.kz.

According to the press service of the West Kazakhstan Regional Court, the administrative panel applied a procedural enforcement measure under Article 127 of the Administrative Procedural Code, fining the plaintiff's representative for abusing procedural rights.

During the hearing, when asked about the plaintiff's absence, the representative stated that the plaintiff was not participating because she did not speak Russian, the language of the proceedings. She claimed the administrative lawsuit was written in Russian only because the contested act was issued in that language. This information was significant, as it could have indicated a violation of language requirements by the lower court and affected the legality of the decision.

However, the court's investigation found that during the initial hearing, the plaintiff understood the judge's questions, answered in Russian without difficulty, and did not request a language change or an interpreter.

After the hearing resumed via videoconference, the plaintiff was connected and again spoke Russian freely, answering the court's questions without an interpreter.

The administrative panel concluded that the representative had provided false information, forcing the court to take unnecessary procedural steps unrelated to the appeal, thereby delaying the proceedings.

According to Part 2 of Article 28 of the Administrative Procedural Code, the plaintiff is obliged to provide true facts and testify truthfully; this duty also extends to the representative, who must use procedural rights in good faith.

Given these circumstances, the panel found the representative's actions to be an abuse of procedural rights and imposed a fine of 10 monthly calculation indices (MCI), totaling 43,250 tenge.

“The application of a monetary penalty is aimed at ensuring the conscientious behavior of participants, preventing abuse of procedural rights, complying with reasonable timeframes, and strengthening respect for the court and the law,” the press service of the West Kazakhstan Regional Court stated.

The court's ruling has entered into force.