SECOND SECTION

DECISION

Application no. 23595/03 by Danut ė VAI Č ELIEN Ė against Lithuania

The European Court of Human Rights (Second Section), sitting on 31 January 2006 as a Chamber composed of:

Mr J.-P. Costa , President , Mr I. Cabral Barreto , Mr V. Butkevych , Mrs A. Mularoni , Mrs E. Fura-Sandström , Ms D. Jočienė , Mr D. Popović, judges , and Mr S. Naismith , Deputy Section Registrar ,

Having regard to the above application lodged on 18 July 2003 ,

Having regard to the decision to apply Article 29 § 3 of the Convention and examine the admissibility and merits of the case together,

Having regard to the observations submitted by the respondent Government,

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

THE FACTS

The applicant, Ms Danut ė Vaič e lie n ė , is a Lithuanian national who was born in 1938 and lives in Vilnius .

She complained, in particular, about the length of legal proceedings, alleging a breach of Article 6 of the Convention.

On 6 July 2005 the President of the Court communicated this aspect of the case to the respondent Government under Rule 54 § 2 (b) of the Rules of Court. The Government submitted their observations on the admissibility and merits of the case on 28 September 2005 .

By letter of the Registry of the Court of 13 October 2005 the applicant was requested to submit, by 24 November 2005 , her comments on the Government ’ s observations.

In view of the absence of the applicant ’ s reply, by letter of the Registry of 21 December 2005 , sent by registered mail, the applicant was informed that the period allowed for submission of her observations had expired on 24 November 2005 , and that no extension of the time-limit had been requested. The applicant ’ s attention was drawn to Article 37 § 1 (a) of the Convention which provided that the Court could strike the case out of its list of cases where the circumstances led to the conclusion that an applicant did not intend to pursue the application.

COMPLAIN TS

The applicant complained, in particular, about the length of court proceedings. She alleged a breach of Article 6 of the Convention.

THE LAW

The Court notes that despite the Registry ’ s letters of 13 October and 21 December 2005 , the applicant has not submitted her comments as to the Government ’ s observations, nor has she made any other submissions to the Court since the communication of the case.

In these circumstances, the Court finds that the applicant has lost interest in pursuing the case, as understood by Article 37 § 1 (a) of the Convention, and that there are no general issues concerning the respect for h uman r ights warranting the continued examination of the application.

The Court concludes that the procedure under Article 29 § 3 of the Convention should be terminated, and that the application should be struck out of its list of cases.

For these reasons, the Court unanimously

Decides to strike the application out of its list of cases.

S. Naismith J.-P. C osta Deputy Registrar President