Feasibility of Claiming Damages for Late Payment from the Debts of Government Institutions and Non-governmental Public Institutions

Abstract

Paying late payment damages by the government to citizens is accepted in many legal systems, and whenever damage is done to citizens due to the actions or omissions of the government, the government is obliged to compensate the damages. However, in the Iranian legal system, this issue has faced many challenges and demanding damages and receiving them from the government does not have a proper place in the judicial and administrative system of the country, and the laws and opinions issued by some authorities in recent years have confirmed its non-fulfillment. In the past years, the non-payment of late payment compensation was not very important due to the low inflation rate, but the economic developments of the last decade and the unprecedented increase in inflation and the significant jump in prices have added to the importance of the issue, and if the old routine continues, the citizens will face a lot of losses. In this paper, using a descriptive-analytical method, and scrutinizing manner, the legal principles such as the principle of equality of persons before the law, the principle of fairness, the principle of non-discrimination and the principle of the necessity of compensation, the existing judicial procedure and the non-payment of this damage by the government have been criticized and this lack of payment has been investigated as a violation of the fundamental rights of citizens.

Keywords

• late payment damages
• government
• citizen's rights
• equality before the law
• non-discrimination
• need for compensation