The Administrative Court no. 1 of Vigo, in a sentence of 15 November 2017, states that a mere virtual relationship, between two members of the selection body in the selection process for the provision of local police posts and two candidates, cannot be accepted as a reason for disqualification of two of the members.
The challenge contemplated by Law 40/2015 must be based on the existence of a relationship of intimate friendship. And it has not been proven that the supposed friendship of the candidates with the challenged members of the court is of the intensity required to jeopardize impartiality of the evaluating body.
A photography was posted on the Facebook social network, where the challenged members (members of the selection body) appear at a Christmas dinner with the messages “colleagues dinner” and “celebrating this special day”. The judgement indicates that only from this picture cannot be draw an intense affective bond between the two vowels and the two candidates that appear in the photography.
The Court strongly differentiate friendship on the Internet with a real friendship. And to strengthen their arguments, echoes a ruling of the Asturias Court of Justice, which stresses that clicking “like” on Facebook, does not equal to have friendship with the author of the publication, much less intimate.
Therefore, the Court considers that the objection of two of the members of the selection board, in the examination for the provision of local police posts, was contrary to law, and orders the continuation of the selection procedure.
(Source Noticias Jurídicas)