CONSTITUTIONAL
COURT
CONFIRMS RIGHT OF OWNERS TO PROVIDE THEIR HOME FOR CONDUCTING
WORSHIP SERVICES
by
Mikhail Telekhov
Worship
services,
religious rituals, and ceremonies may be freely conducted in a
residential
building located on a parcel of land designated for private
farming, with the
permission of the owner, a RAPSI correspondent reports from the
courtroom of
the Russian Constitutional Court, where the pertinent order was
announced.
Such a
position, in
the opinion of the Constitutional Court, is consistent with the
purpose of
housing, designed to satisfy not only the physical needs of
citizens, but also
their spiritual interests,
Adventists
of the
village of Veselyi
The
complainant, a
resident of Rostov oblast, Olga Glamozdinova, asked for
verification of the
consistency with the Russian Constitution of the second
paragraph of article 42
of the Land Code of the RF and part 1 of article 88 of the Code
of
Administrative Violations of Law of the RF, which establish the
accountability
of owners and nonowners for the use of land for other than the
designated
purpose.
The
materials of the
case show that Glamozinova is a parishioner of the Church of
Christian
Seventh-Day Adventists in the village of Veselyi, and as the
owner of a
residential building and parcel of land of a quarter acre in
January 2017 she
provided to the aforesaid church, by an agreement, free use of
the property of
her home for conducting worship services, rituals, and
ceremonies for 4 hours a
week. Glamodzinova's address was ent4ered in the Uniform State
Register of Legal
Entities as the legal address of the religious organizations.
The
complaint reports
that in September 2017, the district department of the agency of
Rosreestr for
Rostov oblast held her administratively accountable and fined
her 10 thousand
rubles for use of the land for other than its designated
purpose. And courts of
two instances confirmed the legality of Rosreestr's order.
In the
complainant's
opinion, the challenged rules are inconsistent with articles 28,
35 (part 2)
and 55 (part 3) of the Russian constitution, inasmuch as they
violate her right
to freely own and dispose of her property and also her right to
freedom of
conscience and religious confession.
Without
alteration of
housing
In the
opinion of the
Constitutional Court, a parcel of land for conducting personal
subsidiary
farming presupposes, among other things, placement of a
residential building in
which worship services, religious rituals, and ceremonies may be
freely
conducted, which is consistent with the designation of housing
designed to
satisfy not only physical needs of citizens but also their
spiritual interests,
including the spiritual needs of believers. At the same time,
the rights and
legal interests of other persons and the rules for the use of
residential
premises must be strictly observed by the believers.
"With
the
consent of the owner of housing, state registration of a
religious organization
at the address of the residential object of real estate is also
possible. This
has special significance for numerically small religious
organizations that do
not have their own buildings and premises and also the
possibility of acquiring
or renting them. Such a provision does not necessarily mean the
transformation
of the residential premises into administrative premises of a
religious organization,
and thus does not lead to the use of the land for other than its
designated
purposes," the materials of the court say.
The
rules being
challenged are recognized to be consistent with the Russian
constitution. The
case of the complainant is subject to review. At the same time,
the order
indicates that law enforcement must proceed from the totality of
factual
circumstances in investigating allegations of the transformation
of a
residential building into a liturgical or administrative
building of a
religious organization. (tr. by PDS, posted 14 November 2019)
Editorial disclaimer: RRN does
not intend to certify the accuracy of information
presented in articles. RRN simply intends to certify the
accuracy of the English translation of the contents of the
articles as they appeared in news media of countries of
the former USSR.
If material is quoted, please give credit to the
publication from which it came. It is not necessary to credit
this Web page. If material is transmitted electronically, please
include reference to the URL,
http://www.stetson.edu/~psteeves/relnews/.