3.4. Objection based on an obviously wrong understanding of the board's procedural obligations, the right to be heard and the principle of a fair trial

In T 355/13 the appellant suspected the board of partiality, inter alia because it had not provided a provisional opinion on decisive aspects of the case and because it had issued a summons to oral proceedings instead of remitting the case to the department of first instance. Referring to G 6/95 (OJ 1996, 649), the board stressed that there was no procedural obligation for the board to issue any provisional opinion, and that in inter partes proceedings it was not possible to automatically follow a party's request without giving the other parties the possibility to be heard on that request (in oral proceedings, if requested). The board considered the partiality objection inadmissible, as it was based on an obviously wrong interpretation of the board's procedural obligations, the right to be heard and the principle of a fair trial.