Judgment_paragraph 71 · M.F. v J.M (C-508/19)

71It follows that the questions referred to the Court in the present case relate intrinsically to a dispute other than that in the main proceedings, to which the latter is in fact merely incidental, in that, by those questions, the referring court seeks to determine whether J.M.’s appointment as President of the Disciplinary Chamber of the Sąd Najwyższy (Supreme Court) and the designation by that judge of the disciplinary court called upon to hear disciplinary proceedings such as those in respect of the applicant in the main proceedings, are compatible with EU law and, ultimately, whether the disciplinary court thus designated by J.M. to hear such disciplinary proceedings in respect of that applicant constitutes an independent and impartial tribunal previously established by law within the meaning of the second paragraph of Article 47 of the Charter. In those circumstances, the Court would be obliged, in order fully to determine the scope of those questions and to provide them with an appropriate answer, to have regard to the relevant factors characterising that other dispute rather than to confine itself to the configuration of the dispute in the main proceedings, as required however by Article 267 TFEU.