Poland's Tribunal of State Fines Chairperson Małgorzata Manowska Over Delays

A three-person panel of Poland's Tribunal of State imposed a disciplinary fine of 3,000 PLN on the body's own Chairperson, Małgorzata Manowska, on April 8, 2026, after she failed to convene a full bench meeting by the court-ordered deadline of April 4. The panel — composed of judges Przemysław Rosati, Marek Mikołajczyk, and Piotr Zientarski — ruled that Manowska had not fulfilled an obligation imposed on her by the Tribunal's own decision of March 11, 2026. Manowska holds the chairpersonship of the Tribunal of State automatically, by operation of law, in her capacity as First President of the Supreme Court. The panel found that her failure to act caused a delay in the examination of legal questions pending before the full bench, thereby violating what Rosati described as a significant public interest. Manowska has seven days to appeal the decision.

Świrski case at the heart of the standoff The dispute stems from proceedings before the Tribunal of State against Maciej Świrski, the former head of Poland's National Broadcasting Council, which have been ongoing for over a year. During those proceedings, a motion was filed by the case's prosecutor — member of parliament Maciej Tomczykiewicz of the Civic Coalition — to recuse judge Piotr Sak from the adjudicating panel. That recusal motion was assigned to the three-judge panel of Rosati, Mikołajczyk, and Zientarski, who on March 11 decided to refer a series of legal questions to the full bench of the Tribunal before ruling on the recusal. The questions concern the mechanism by which adjudicating panels are formed within the Tribunal of State — specifically, whether that process should be governed by statute and the Tribunal's own regulations, rather than by an order issued by the Chairperson. The panel simultaneously ordered Manowska to convene the full bench by April 4, under explicit threat of a fine. According to reporting by Polsat News, Manowska not only failed to convene the meeting but also revoked the March orders related to the matter, and instead directed that a report on the legal questions be prepared by September 30 — a date that falls after her term as Chairperson is set to expire on May 26, 2026.

The Tribunal of State was established under Polish law to adjudicate cases of constitutional accountability against the country's highest officials. The body's chairperson is the First President of the Supreme Court, serving in that role automatically by statute. The case against Maciej Świrski, who served as head of the National Broadcasting Council from 2022 to 2025, has generated procedural disputes over panel composition and the scope of criminal procedure applicable before the Tribunal. The question of who controls the formation of adjudicating panels — the Chairperson acting unilaterally or the Tribunal acting collectively under statute — sits at the core of the current institutional conflict.

Rosati accuses Manowska of blocking the Tribunal's work Rosati, who chairs the adjudicating panel and also serves as president of the Supreme Bar Council, was direct in his characterization of Manowska's conduct. In the justification of Wednesday's decision, he stated that the Tribunal could not remain passive in the face of an obvious failure to perform duties by persons obliged to do so. He was quoted by the Polish Press Agency as saying that Manowska was avoiding convening the full bench meeting in a manner intended to obstruct the proceedings. In an interview with Gazeta Wyborcza, Rosati stated that there was no doubt the Chairperson was blocking the work of the Tribunal of State. Manowska, for her part, had issued a statement on the Tribunal's website on March 16 calling the motion to convene the full bench illegal. „The motion to convene a full bench is illegal.” — Małgorzata Manowska via Wprost She also argued that internal disputes within the Tribunal were detrimental to the authority of the state, and characterized the one-and-a-half-month deadline as potentially a sign of naivety, adding that the totality of circumstances suggested the action had a clearly political background.

New deadline set, Świrski case adjourned to May Having imposed the fine, the panel simultaneously re-obligated Manowska to convene a meeting of the full bench of the Tribunal of State by no later than May 11, 2026, again under threat of a further fine if she fails to comply. The hearing on the recusal of judge Piotr Sak from the Świrski panel was adjourned until May 12, 2026, one day after the new deadline for the full bench meeting. The sequencing means that the legal questions regarding panel formation must, in the Tribunal's design, be resolved before the recusal motion can be decided. The adjudicating panel for the Świrski case, drawn in the autumn of 2025, consists of chairman Maciej Miłosz and members Marcin Radwan-Röhrenschef, Piotr Sak, Marcin Wawrzyniak, and Adrian Salus, according to Polsat News. Whether Manowska will comply with the new order or appeal the fine — or both — will determine whether the Świrski proceedings can advance before her term as Chairperson expires at the end of May.

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