Preliminary ruling request on change of venue in preliminary chamber held inadmissible.

The High Court of Cassation and Justice dismissed as inadmissible a referral from the Court of Appeal Craiova seeking a preliminary ruling on whether a request for change of venue (strămutare) is admissible in the preliminary chamber procedure reviewing a complaint against a prosecutor's decision not to prosecute. The Court thus rejected the request, leaving the underlying ruling by the Court of Appeal in force. The dispute concerned a procedural question in a criminal case, specifically whether a change-of-venue motion could be lodged during the preliminary chamber stage that examines a complaint against a no-prosecution order. Decisively, the Court held the referral inadmissible because the conditions for a preliminary ruling on a question of law were not met—the issue did not present the required novelty or difficulty, and the referring court had not exhausted the procedural framework—thereby declining to answer the merits under the relevant criminal procedure provisions.