Admissibility of cost recovery application after conclusion of constitutional proceedings

The Austrian Constitutional Court dismissed the applicant's request for reimbursement of procedural costs. The dispute concerned a cost recovery application filed after the Constitutional Court had previously declined to treat a complaint against a federal ministerial decision dated April 16, 1996, via a non-constitutional decision that became final in November 1997. The applicant, who had later learned that the Administrative Court annulled the challenged administrative act, sought legal costs based on the assumption of success, but the court ruled that the proceedings before it were already concluded at the time of the application, rendering the request inadmissible. The decision was based on the principle that costs requests are only admissible while the proceedings are pending, applied under §19 Abs. 4 of the 1953 Constitutional Court Act, and was issued in a non-public session.