Under Hungarian civil procedural law, courts could reject a complaint without issuing a summons if the claim was evidently unfounded or impossible. This general clause had been introduced to the Civil Procedural Code in 1952, and it was abolished in 1957. Legislature re-established the clause in 1972 in order to speed up procedures. According to the Constitutional Court, this provision violated the citizens’ rights to a fair trial by an independent court as provided by the Constitution. The Court emphasised that citizens had a right to have their claim judged by a court, and access to the courts could not be rejected by a simple reference to practical needs. It annulled the related provision of the Civil Procedural Code.