16 ANNAGI HAJIBEYLI v. AZERBAIJAN JUDGMENT authorities and the Nasimi District Court were aware or ought to have been aware that Mr Aliyev was representing numerous clients in domestic civil proceedings and before the Court. However, no reservation was put in place in the search warrant with regard to privileged client documents that were kept in his office. In the context of the present complaint, the Court will refrain from drawing a general conclusion as to whether the search warrant issued by the Nasimi District Court on 7 August 2014 was formulated in excessively broad terms. Nevertheless, it notes that the search warrant specified that the documents and other material to be seized were to be related only to the Legal Education Society’s establishment, structure, functioning, membership registration and financial activities. Whereas the documents in the applicant’s case file did not relate to any of the above, it appears that the prosecution authorities overstepped the scope of the search warrant by seizing the applicant’s case file. Moreover, it does not appear that the search was conducted in the presence of an independent observer capable of identifying, independently of the investigation team, which documents were covered by professional privilege. No adequate inventory of the seized privileged documents was made in the search and seizure records of 8 and 9 August 2014. 75. The Court finds that neither the Government nor the domestic authorities or courts have demonstrated any justification for seizing the documents concerning the present application in the context of the criminal proceedings against the applicant’s lawyer. 76. Furthermore, no safeguards or compensatory measures were offered to the applicant. Even if there existed some sort of justification for seizing the case file, the Court considers that, at the very least, the applicant should have been informed of the seizure in a timely manner and given an opportunity to make and retain copies of all the material in the case file, to enable him to participate effectively in the Court proceedings after the seizure. 77. Having regard to the above, the Court takes the view that lack of access to the applicant’s case file must have had a “chilling effect” on the exercise of the right of individual petition by the applicant and his representative, and that it cannot realistically be argued otherwise. It is true that, before the seizure, the application form and the relevant documents had reached the Court and that both the Government and the applicant had made all the required subsequent submissions enabling the Court to examine the applicant’s complaint under Article 3 of Protocol No. 1. However, a failure by the respondent Government to comply with their procedural obligation under Article 34 of the Convention does not necessarily require that the alleged interference should have actually restricted, or had any appreciable impact on, the exercise of the right of individual petition. The Contracting Party’s procedural obligation must be enforced irrespective of the eventual outcome of the proceedings and in such a manner as to avoid any actual or