Judge of the Civil Court of Cassation within the Supreme Court, Olga Stupak, took part in a round table discussion on registration of births and deaths that took place in territories outside government control.
This was reported by the press service of the Judiciary.
Olha Stupak noted that the position of the Supreme Court has remained unchanged since 2018: the content of p. 21 st. 5 of the Law of Ukraine “On court fees” does not allow it to be interpreted in such a way that applicants in similar cases are exempted from paying court fees by virtue of the law. But in Art. 8 of the said Law provides for the possibility of deferring and deferring the payment of the court fee, reducing its amount or exempting it from payment. She noted that lawyers and lawyers should explain this to citizens, and also said about the expediency of developing standard forms of relevant petitions.
The judge of the Supreme Court of Justice of Ukraine said that the courts actively apply the provisions of the mentioned article, but the court cannot exempt the applicant from paying the court fee on its own initiative. For this, a corresponding petition of the applicant is necessary. She explained that it does not matter to the court which person applied to it, for establishing which fact, where she lives, why she came to this or that court. “For the court, all participants in the process are equal. Therefore, in cases of establishing the facts of birth and death in the temporarily occupied territories, the standards of proof remain the same as for all other categories of cases,” said Olha Stupak.
The speaker also emphasized the need to complete the development and implementation in the near future of the administrative procedure for registering the facts of birth and death of citizens in the territory not controlled by Ukraine, as this is a function of the executive authorities.