CC rejects proceedings on legality of Rada’s petition on Tomos

Constitutional Court of Ukraine

The Constitutional Court stated it could not assess the legitimacy of the resolution of the Verkhovna Rada, which supported the petition of President Poroshenko on granting the Tomos, since it has a “political rather than legal nature”. This is reported in the published Ruling of the CC.

The Constitutional Court notes that the issues raised in the resolution “are of political nature and should be resolved within the framework of the competence and political expediency of the relevant state bodies”.

According to the judges, "the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine can make decisions of political nature to express its position and evaluate certain events, facts, circumstances."

"By adopting the resolution, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine expressed its political position regarding the support of the President of Ukraine's petition to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on granting the Tomos on autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine," the Ruling of the Constitutional Court says.

The judges believe that the issue raised in the appeal of the MPs cannot be subject to consideration by the Constitutional Court, since they are of political rather than legal nature”.

“This indicates that there are grounds for rejection to initiate constitutional proceedings in accordance with clause 2 of Article 62 of the Law of Ukraine 'On the Constitutional Court of Ukraine' –  'issues raised in the constitutional petition, constitutional appeal, or the constitutional complaint fall beyond the Court’s competence',” the document explains.

The Ruling of the Grand Chamber of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine is final.

Earlier, an appeal of 47 MPs to the Constitutional Court due to the state interference in the affairs of the Church was taken into consideration and handed over to the judge rapporteur.

As the UOJ reported, in the document the MPs from the “Opposition Bloc” and non-factional deputies requested the Court to check the legality of the Verkhovna Rada’s resolution, whereby it supported the President’s petition to Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.

The appeal emphasized that Ukraine is a secular state, which should take a neutral position in matters of faith and religion. According to the Parliamentarians, a biased attitude of the state to any religion is a violation of the Constitution.

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