29 May, 2024
On 29 May 2024, at the public part of the plenary session, the First Senate proceeded with consideration of the case upon the constitutional complaint of Volodymyr Padierin regarding the constitutionality of Article 46.1.5 of the Law of Ukraine “On Higher Education” No. 1556-VII dated 1 July 2014 (hereinafter, the “Law”) in the form of written proceedings.
During the plenary session, the judge-rapporteur in the case, Oksana Hryshchuk, informed that Volodymyr Padierin had filed a petition with the Constitutional Court of Ukraine to verify the compliance of the Law, according to which the grounds for expelling a higher education student are, in particular, „violation of the terms of the agreement (contract) concluded between the higher education establishment and the student or the individual (legal entity) paying for such education” with the Constitution of Ukraine.
The following follows from the content of the constitutional complaint and the documents and materials attached to it.
In August 2021, Volodymyr Padierin entered into a study agreement with the National Aviation University (hereinafter, the “University”) and was enrolled in the first year of full-time study for a second (Master's) degree in higher education at the expense of the state budget.
However, in January 2022, he was expelled from the University by order of the Rector for violation of academic discipline, the Rules of Internal Regulations in Student Dormitories, the Rules of Internal Regulations of the National Aviation University, the Regulations on Student Dormitories, the Law and evicted from the University dormitory.
Considering his expulsion to be unlawful, Volodymyr Padierin appealed to the court of first instance, which upheld his claim, declared the order unlawful, and cancelled it.
Therefore, the University appealed this decision on appeal. The court of appeal partially upheld the appeal: it changed the decision of the court of first instance in terms of the motives and grounds for satisfying the claim, but agreed with the other conclusions based on which the claim was satisfied.
The Supreme Court refused to initiate cassation proceedings upon Volodymyr Padierin's cassation appeal, as it was filed against court decisions in a case of minor complexity.
According to the author of the petition, the application of the disputed provision of the Law in his case led to a violation of the right guaranteed by Article 58.2 of the Constitution of Ukraine “not to be held liable for an act not recognised by law as an offence”.
To substantiate his allegations, the subject of the constitutional complaint refers to the Constitution of Ukraine, the Law, decisions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, as well as court decisions in his case.
During the plenary session, the subject of the constitutional complaint, Volodymyr Padierin, and his representative, lawyer Lidiia Klymkiv, answered a number of clarifying questions of the judges.
Having examined the case file in the public part, 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/2024
