January 31, 2024
On January 31, 2024, the First Senate, at the public part of the plenary session, began consideration in the case upon the constitutional complaint of Mykyta Yevstifeiev in the form of written proceedings.
During the plenary session, the judge-rapporteur in the case, Olha Sovhyria, informed that the subject of the right to a constitutional complaint had filed a petition with the Constitutional Court of Ukraine to verify the constitutionality of a separate provision of Article 423.1 of the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine (hereinafter - the Code).
According to Article 423.1 of the Code, “a court decision, resolution or ruling that has completed the consideration of a case and entered into force may be reviewed under newly discovered or exceptional circumstances”.
The judge-rapporteur pointed out that on November 22, 2023, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine delivered Decision No. 10-r(II)/2023, which, in particular, declared unconstitutional paragraphs 1, 5 of Article 19.6 of the Code.
From the content of the constitutional complaint and the materials attached to it, it is clear that after this decision was delivered, on November 24, 2023, Mykyta Yevstifeiev appealed to the Civil Court of Cassation of the Supreme Court for reviewing of the Supreme Court's ruling dated February 3, 2023 under exceptional circumstances, which refused to initiate cassation proceedings.
The Supreme Court, referring to Article 423.1 of the Code, returned Mykyta Yevstifeiev’s application to him. In the ruling, the Court stated that it “is not subject to consideration by the Supreme Court, since the Supreme Court's ruling to declare cassation proceedings is not a court ruling that concludes the case”.
According to the applicant, the contested provision of the Code makes it impossible to review the ruling on refusal to initiate cassation proceedings and to re-decide by the Supreme Court the issue of initiating such proceedings without applying the provision previously declared as unconstitutional. He argues that he is effectively deprived of the opportunity to effectively protect and restore the rights violated by the application of the provision declared as unconstitutional in his case.
The judge-rapporteur informed that in order to ensure a full and comprehensive consideration of the case, she had sent inquiries to the President of Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, the Supreme Court, a number of scientific institutions and higher education establishments, as well as members of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, requesting to express their opinions on the issues raised in the constitutional complaint.
The judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine will be informed about the content of the expressed opinions at the in-camera part of the plenary session, - the judge noted.
Consequently, in this case, the Court proceeded to the in-camera part of the plenary session.
The public part of the plenary session was attended by the subject of the constitutional complaint, Mykyta Yevstifeiev, and the Permanent Representative of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, Maksym Dyrdin.
The video of the plenary session is available on the official website of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine in the section “Archive of video broadcasts of the sessions”.
