Abstract

Extended Abstract
Background and Purpose: Today, due to the failure of the centralized government’s functions in the proper management of public affairs, particularly in the cities, special attention is paid to the issue of decentralization as a suitable solution and as one of the important issues in modern public management at a large level and by shrinking the power of the central government and national policies, more accountable and inclusive governance is created through the transfer of powers and responsibilities to local units. It also increases decentralization, effectiveness in the public service sector, and service distribution. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to review the votes of the Administrative Court of Justice (ACJ) with the components related to the principle of equality in the distribution of public services for the benefit of citizens to assess the approach of the Court in this area.
Materials and Methods: The present article is in the field of distribution of public services and urban management in the judicial procedure by referring to written documents and analysis of lawsuits issued by the branches and the General Assembly of the Court of Administrative Justice by descriptive-analytical method and field studies with a practical purpose and this type of research is to fill the legal gap in the Iranian Constitution in order not to mention the issue of equality among the principles related to local decentralization with the model of referring to the votes of the ACJ to provide better public services in society. In this regard, researchers collected information by studying over five hundred samples of votes issued by ACJ, which finally in the text of the article referred to the invoked votes in the field of civil law. The statistical population of the study shows the approach of the judges of the ACJ regarding the principle of equality with the concepts of the local decentralization system and by stratified random sampling method and examining the components related to the principle of equality, such as equality before the law, permissible discrimination, property rights of individuals and legal protection of citizens, as research data and their compliance with the votes issued by the ACJ has been analyzed.
Findings and Discussion: In the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, there is no mention of the issue of equality among the principles related to decentralization. Of course, it cannot be denied that the Iranian Constitution in other places such as the introduction and some of the principles of the constitution (such as the 19th, 20th, paragraphs 3, 8, 9, 14, 15 of the third principle) emphatically, although in its way, addressed this principle and supported it. The principle of equality, which can be considered one of the valuable norms of the constitution, places all Iranians, regardless of race and language, under the rule of equal law, equal proceedings, and equal public administration. On the other hand, from the perspective of the relationship between the principle of equality and decentralization issues, order to fill legal gaps and resort to administrative jurisprudence with the existing capacities of ACJ is the most important way to overcome these obstacles and achieve the desired local decentralization system to amend the law has been examined in terms of the criteria provided by the ACJ on the principle of equality of local units. Also, in terms of subject matter, the present study, compared to other related studies, deals in detail with the decisions issued by the ACJ in terms of the intersection of the principle of equality with local decentralization, and on the other hand, are used with concepts and components such as property rights of individuals, elimination of unfair discrimination, etc., which are in line with the principle of Equality as a suitable tool at the disposal of the ACJ to limit the local decentralization system, which led to the difference between the present study and the conducted researches.
Conclusion: The result of the research by examining the ACJ decides that the principle of equality was not explicitly invoked, but by considering the votes issued with concepts and components such as property rights of individuals, removing unfair discrimination, etc., which are in line with the principle of equality, it is possible to search for the traces of the said principle and the court has a positive approach towards citizens' equal use of city services and has prevented various institutions from discriminating against citizens' use of public services in local units.; Therefore, a detailed acquaintance with the limits and loopholes of the principle of equality and the concepts related to it, can provide its existential necessity for principled decentralization and prevent the threats caused by it.