Legal Department comments on Kyiv District Court's ruling

UOC appeals against the Kyiv court’s ruling. Photo: rb7.ru

The Legal Department of the UOC claims there are no grounds for changing the name and re-registering the UOC communities, adding that the Kyiv District Court’s ruling will be challenged, reports law.church.ua.

Thus the lawyers commented on the decision of the Kyiv District Administrative Court in the case of the appeal against the religious examination of the UOC Statute on the presence of the church-canonical connection to the Moscow Patriarchate.

The lawyers noted that although on 15 May 2023, the Kyiv District Administrative Court overturned a court ruling of 22 April 2019 banning any registration actions regarding the information contained in the USR in relation to religious organisations of the UOC, as of today the ruling has not entered into force.

The Legal Department added that the court made the ruling with a significant violation of the norms of substantive and procedural law. In particular, when describing the circumstances, the court confused the plaintiffs and the defendant; it described actions which the plaintiffs had not taken.

Also, in substantiating the validity of the expertise carried out by the defendant, the court referred to the facts allegedly established by the expertise, but the court did not establish either the lack of a methodology of such expertise or the confirmation of the facts stated in its findings.

In addition, the court did not draw attention to the fact that "the expertise is religious studies, but it does not have a legal character”.

Taking into account this, as well as a number of other violations on the part of the court, the Legal Department of the UOC informs that "now the court decision has not entered into force and, consequently, all prohibitions on carrying out any registration actions concerning the data contained in the Unified State Register of legal entities, individual entrepreneurs and public formations, remain in effect regarding religious organizations of the UOC".

"Taking into account the unlawfulness of the court decision, we will file a corresponding appeal in the terms provided by the legislation. In addition, we draw attention to the fact that despite this court decision, today there is no reason to change the names of religious organizations belonging to the UOC," the Legal Department's commentary reads.

As earlier reported, the Kyiv court said that the UOC remains part of the ROC.

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