A court in Uralsk has issued a private ruling addressed to the head of the Police Department of the West Kazakhstan Region after it emerged that a police officer had handed his private electronic digital signature key to a colleague, and administrative rulings were issued in his name, the website infohub.kz reports.
According to the press service of the West Kazakhstan Regional Court, the specialized court for administrative offenses in Uralsk heard a complaint filed by a woman through her lawyer against a ruling by an official of the city police department imposing administrative liability under Subparagraph 4 of Part 1 of Article 407-2 of the Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Administrative Offenses (violation of the rules for keeping and walking domestic animals).
By the official's ruling, the woman was held administratively liable and fined 43,250 tenge.
Having reviewed the complaint, the court upheld her claims and annulled the contested ruling. At the same time, while checking the legality of the administrative proceedings, the court identified circumstances requiring a separate response.
At the hearing, the police officer in whose name the ruling had been issued explained that he had not issued it personally and had given his private electronic digital signature key to another officer, who prepared the electronic document.
These circumstances made it necessary to verify the actual author of the ruling, his official powers, the procedure for signing the electronic document and the information system's records of user actions.
In addition, the court found no evidence that the woman had been properly notified of the time and place of the administrative case's consideration by the official. No confirmation of the sending and receipt of the relevant notification was presented.
Despite the proper notification of the participants in the proceedings, the necessary materials of the administrative case, including documents summoning the woman, evidence and the inspection materials that served as the basis for the ruling, were not presented.
As a result, the hearing was postponed repeatedly, but the identified shortcomings were not remedied.
The court concluded that these circumstances point to deficiencies in departmental control over the use of private electronic digital signature keys, the issuance of administrative rulings, the notification of participants in the proceedings, the formation of the evidence base and the submission of materials to the court.
In order to eliminate the violations, the court issued a private ruling addressed to the head of the Police Department of the West Kazakhstan Region.
The court ordered that an internal investigation be organized, that the person who actually prepared and signed the electronic ruling be identified, and that the powers of officials, the circumstances of the transfer and use of the private electronic digital signature key, and the information system's records of user actions be checked.
The court's ruling has not entered into legal force.