On October 11, 2023, at the public part of the plenary session in the form of written proceedings, the First Senate deliberated the case upon the constitutional complaint of Serhii Dyniak regarding the compliance of Article 143.1, Article 1321.2 of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses (hereinafter referred to as “the Code”) with the Constitution of Ukraine.
As noted by the judge-rapporteur in the case Viktor Kolisnyk, the applicant appealed to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine to verify the constitutionality of Article 143.1 of the Code, according to which for offenses in the field of road transport safety, provided for in Article 1222.2, Articles 1321.2 and 1321.3 of the Code, recorded by means of photo and film photography, video recording, including in automatic mode, administrative liability is borne by the responsible person - an individual or the head of the legal entity under which the vehicle is registered, and if information about the proper user of the corresponding vehicle is entered in the Unified State Register of Vehicles - the proper user of the vehicle, and if there is no information about the head of the legal entity in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, Individual Entrepreneurs, and Public Organizations at the time of the request, under which the vehicle is registered, is a person who exercises the authority of the head of such a legal entity.
The judge-rapporteur informed that the author of the petition also disputes the of Article 1321.2 of the Code, according to which “exceeding the dimensions and weight norms established by the law during the movement of large-sized and heavy vehicles on highways, streets or railway crossings entails the imposition of a fine”.
Based on the materials of the constitutional complaint, it can be seen that in the period from December 2021 to February 2022, about 2,000 resolutions were drawn up on the applicant to bring him to administrative liability for exceeding regulatory parameters with vehicles belonging to the company in which he holds the position of head specified in paragraph 22.5 of the Road Traffic Rules of Ukraine.
According to Serhii Dyniak, the contested provisions of the Code “create conditions for excessive interference with the right to property of an individual”, guaranteed by Article 41 of the Constitution of Ukraine.
To confirm his position, the applicant refers, in particular, to certain provisions of the Constitution of Ukraine, judgments of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, the European Court of Human Rights, the Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and court decisions in his case.
During the session, a number of requests were made by the subject of the right to a constitutional complaint, Serhii Dyniak, and the Permanent Representative of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, Maksym Dyrdin, which the Court will deliberate at the in-camera part of the plenary session.
During the plenary session, the subject of the right to a constitutional complaint, Serhii Dyniak, and his representative, lawyer Andrii Sydorenko, answered the questions of the judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, Petro Filiuk. In particular, the applicant informed the Court that, as an individual, administrative fines totaling more than UAH 100 million were imposed on him, the total number of protocols in cases of administrative offenses is about 2,000, and in fact the executive service blocked all his accounts.
The judge-rapporteur also informed that in order to ensure a full and objective deliberation of the case, inquiries were sent to the members of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, to the National Transport University, the Kharkiv National Automobile and Road University, the Ministry for Communities Development, Territories and Infrastructure of Ukraine, the State Transport Safety Service of Ukraine to express their opinions on the issues raised in the constitutional complaint.
Having studied the materials of this case in the public part of the plenary session, the Court proceeded to the in-camera part for a decision.
The public part of the plenary session is available on the official website of the Court at: https://ccu.gov.ua/kategoriya/2023.
