A new chairman was not elected Monday at the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) of Armenia. SJC member Grigor Bekmezyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am about this.

"According to the law, until the new election of the chairman of the SJC, the eldest member of the SJC, Stepan Mikayelyan, will perform the duties of the chairman," said Bekmezyan, adding that the SJC decided to put off the election of the new chairman.

According to Grigor Bekmezyan, all the scholar members of the SJC were considered candidates for its chairman.

On July 1, SJC acting chairman Gagik Jhangiryan submitted his resignation—and due to health problems.

On Monday, the SJC issued a statement that Gagik Jhangiryan and Liparit Melikjanyan’s powers as SJC members are considered terminated—and based on their respective letters of resignation. A few days ago, Melikjanyan was elected by the National Assembly as a judge of the judicial staff investigating civil cases at the Anti-Corruption chamber of the Court of Cassation of Armenia.

On June 20, SJC ex-chairman Ruben Vardazaryan publicized an audio recording—of more than a year old—with the participation of himself and Gagik Jhangiryan, in which Jhangiryan had urged Vardazaryan to voluntarily resign from the post of SJC chairman, guaranteeing that in that case no criminal cases would be launched against him. After this recording was made public, the opposition forces were demanding Gagik Jhangiryan’s resignation from the Supreme Judicial Council of Armenia.