On May 1, 2024, at the public part of the plenary sessions, the Second Senate deliberated the case upon two constitutional complaints of Viacheslav Pleskach in the form of written proceedings regarding the constitutionality of Article 423.1 of the Code of Civil Procedure of Ukraine (hereinafter, the “Code”).
Pursuant to Article 423.1 of the Code, “a court decision, resolution, or ruling concuding the deliberation of a case and that entered into force may be reviewed due to newly discovered or exceptional circumstances.”
The judges-rapporteurs in these cases, Viktor Gorodovenko and Galyna Yurovska, outlined the content of the constitutional complaints and the applicant's substantiations during the plenary sessions.
Viacheslav Pleskach appealed to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine to verify the compliance of Article 423.1 of the Code “regarding the impossibility of reviewing a court ruling on the refusal to open cassation proceedings due to exceptional circumstances in respect of the recognition of the law applied in it as unconstitutional by the decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine” with the Constitution of Ukraine (constitutionality).
The applicant believes that “the legislator's exclusion of the decision on the refusal to open cassation proceedings from the list of acts that may be reviewed due to exceptional circumstances in the event that a law is declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court of Ukraine is a violation <…> of the constitutional rights of access to a court and access to the CCU with a constitutional complaint ‒ since this restricts <…> the right to seek restoration of constitutional legality in a court case in which the rights and freedoms <…> were violated due to the application of an unconstitutional law.”
He claims that not only his “constitutional right to a constitutional complaint” was violated, but also his “right of access to a court ... as the restriction ... on the right to review due to exceptional circumstances a court decision delivered by a court applying a law declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court of Ukraine led to a restriction ... on the right of access to the court of cassation.”
After examining the case files in the public part of the plenary session, the Second Senate proceeded to the in-camera part of the plenary sessions.
The video recording 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”.
