A document on deregistration from the military register does not give the right to travel abroad, — Supreme Court

Being removed from military register, as well as the document confirming it, does not allow travel abroad. Only categories of citizens listed in the law can travel.

The plaintiff had a very extreme reason for being removed from military registration: item 6 of paragraph 6 of article 37 of the Law of Ukraine “On Military Duty and Military Service”. This means that he was previously convicted of committing a grave or especially grave crime. When the man tried to cross the border with his passport and a military ticket marked as removed from registration, he was denied. He took his case to the Supreme Court of Ukraine, which, in particular, provided some interesting comments regarding the denial.

The citizen asked to cancel and declare illegal the decision to deny him the crossing of the border, and also to oblige the relevant civil servants to grant him permission to leave the country. The plaintiff believes that if he is not subject to military obligations, he should be able to travel abroad, and that the refusal violated his constitutional rights.

The courts of all instances in their decisions on the refusal to satisfy the lawsuit indicated that the plaintiff did not provide documents that would confirm his right to cross the border. The Supreme Court noted that the fact of removal from military registration is not a reason for traveling abroad during the introduction of martial law in Ukraine. A military ticket with a mark of removal only certifies issues of military registration and is not sufficient proof for crossing the state border by itself. The legislation defines categories of persons who have the right to cross during the introduction of martial law in Ukraine, having reached the age of 16, and the plaintiff did not provide any document confirming his belonging to one of these categories.

The Supreme Court asserts that the plaintiff misunderstands the norms of the legislation on the crossing of the border by Ukrainian citizens, linking the right to cross with the exclusion from military registration. At the same time, the Supreme Court believes that restricting categories of citizens in the right to travel abroad during martial law is to some extent an interference with a person’s private life. However, it is directly provided by law and has a legitimate purpose.

Source: “Legal-Judicial Newspaper”