The discussion is related to the amendments made to the Constitutional Law "On the Supreme Court and Local Courts of the Kyrgyz Republic," which was signed by the president on October 9, 2025.
The adopted law allows for the establishment of the structure of the courts and the number of judges not through legislation, but by presidential decree.
According to the Supreme Court, this initiative aims to evenly distribute the workload among judges, effectively utilize personnel and material-technical resources of the judicial system, and enhance the overall efficiency of judicial activities.
According to judicial statistics, the number of cases received by the Supreme Court has significantly increased: in 2010 there were 4,566 cases, in 2020 — 5,565, and in 2024 there were already 7,829 cases.
This means that the workload on the judges of the Supreme Court has increased by more than 40% compared to 2010, while the number of judges, including the chairperson and their deputies, has remained at 35 since 2003.
Over the past five years, the number of cases received by first-instance courts has doubled: if there were 125,285 cases in 2020, by the end of 2024 there were 251,062. This trend underscores the need for systemic measures to optimize the structure of the judicial system and to more effectively distribute the workload among judges, as well as to increase the number of judges in courts with high workloads.
It is particularly important to consider increasing the number of judges in local courts, taking into account the newly consolidated administrative-territorial units created as a result of the administrative reform. Changes in the boundaries of districts and cities have led to increases in area and population, which, in turn, has significantly increased the workload on judges.
