MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Cristina Fernandez' most hated Justice resigns, but effective the day after she steps down from office

“I have the pleasure of addressing myself to the president of the Republic for the purpose of presenting my resignation,” said Fayt in a written missive

The oldest Justice on the Argentine Supreme Court, Carlos Fayt, 97, on Tuesday presented his resignation, which will take effect on Dec. 11, after President Cristina Fernandez's successor is scheduled to take office, judicial officials said.

 “I have the pleasure of addressing myself to the president of the republic for the purpose of presenting my resignation,” said Fayt in a written missive released by the Judicial Information Center.

Over the past year, Fayt has been the target of repeated criticism by the government of Cristina Fernandez, which questioned his ability to exercise his duties on the high court because of his advanced age.

Argentine law sets the retirement age for the country's judges at 75, but Fayt, who was already a Supreme Court justice when that rule was established, received a ruling by the Court to retain his post and survived the changes on the court, including the reduction in the number of justices by late President Nestor Kirchner.

“Fayt was always an independent judge,” his attorney, Jorge Rizzo, told TN television on Tuesday, adding that his client's resignation is “the best decision he could have made.”

The resignation will become effective one day after the new Argentine president - whoever it may be - takes office, and that official will have to start the process to fill Fayt's vacancy, along with that of Justice Raul Zaffaroni, who left the court early this year.

The government party has been unable to fill Zaffaroni's seat, despite dominating the Senate, because it does not have the required two-thirds majority to do so on its own.

The decree accepting Fayt's resignation was published on the official gazette on Wednesday but with no thanks for services rendered. However cabinet chief Anibal Fernandez did have some praise for the experienced Justice who was named by former president Ricardo Alfonsin back in 1983 when the recovery of democracy.

“The work he carried out for the benefit of Argentineans has been extremely important, renowned and of a great magnitude” said the cabinet chief.

“Dr. Fayt was an activist for Socialism, a man who questioned policies a lot, fundamentally those of the majority parties, the Peronism and the Radical Party. A great man as Dr. Raúl Alfonsín invited him to be part of the Supreme Court of Justice, recognizing in him superior values in terms of his knowledge of the Law and his way of acting in that sense”, Fernández said but ratified the government’s position that the 97-year-old Justice should have already resigned to Argentina’s top court.

“It does not mean that we, at some point, questioned what we opportunely said about his eligibility, nor that we doubted about his eligibility; he has been a brilliant minister and of a superlative stature, but at 97 years of age he was submitted to a job that no man of 97 years old is in conditions to do”, concluded the cabinet chief.