SUPREME COURT FORBIDS UKRAINIANS TO REJECT ID-CARDS ON BASIS OF RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS
The Cassation Administrative Court of the Supreme Court forbade citizens to refuse to accept a card establishing identity (ID-card) on the basis of religious convictions.
This was reported to Ukrainian News by a representative of the court's press service.
"Today the Supreme Court, consisting of a panel of judges of the Cassation Administrative Court, declined to grant a lawsuit," she reported.
The lawsuit was reviewed by the Supreme Court as a model case.
Thereby the decision of the Supreme Court in this case is obligatory and subject to implementation in all similar judicial disputes.
On 15 February, the Supreme Court opened the proceedings on this model case, since it received a corresponding representation from the Zihtomir district administrative court regarding the legality of citizens' refusal of ID-cards.
The lawsuit was filed in court on 30 November 2017 by a resident of Korosten in Zhitomir oblast, Natalia Degtiar.
In the lawsuit, the citizen asked for requiring the State Migration Service to issue to her not an ID-card but a document in the form of a passport booklet.
The appeal was based on the fact that the plaintiff objects, because of her religious beliefs and convictions, to having a passport of a Ukrainian citizen given to her in the form of a card with touch-free electronic data carrier containing her personal information.
The plaintiff maintains that a passport of a Ukrainian citizen may be composed both in the form of an ID-card and in the form of a booklet.
Therefore, in her opinion, composing a passport in the form of a touch-free card is a right and not an obligation of a citizen, and the Migration Service does not have the right to require citizens to get ID-cards exclusively.
On 21 March, the Cabinet of Ministers prohibited issuance of a passport to a Ukrainian citizen using a form in the shape of a booklet. The Migration Service issued 1.1 million ID-cards in 2017. (tr. by PDS, posted 26 March 2018)
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