The court returned the DESS lawsuit on the liquidation of Koretsky Monastery due to procedural violations

The appeals court has returned a lawsuit filed by the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) to stop the activity and liquidate the Holy Trinity Koretskyy Stavropigial Nunnery. The reason for this decision was procedural errors committed by the agency when filing the lawsuit.

According to the source, the lawsuit, filed by the DESS on November 4, contained demands to terminate the activities of the monastery, transfer its property into state ownership, as well as the appointment of a liquidator and the establishment of a time limit for the submission of creditors’ claims.

In the course of the hearing the court found that in one application the claims related to different spheres of legal proceedings — civil and administrative — had been unlawfully combined. The law prohibits such consolidation, unless it is expressly authorized by a separate regulatory act.

The judges noted that the DESS was given time to eliminate deficiencies and clarify the claim, but the agency failed to provide legal norms that would have allowed the combined claims to be considered in one proceeding. It also proved impossible to separate the claims and continue the case in the administrative court.

As a result, the application was returned to the plaintiff. Nevertheless, the court emphasized that this does not deprive the agency of the right to file a claim again, but provided that it fully complies with the requirements of the legislation.

We shall remind you that the Cassation Administrative Court of the Supreme Court opened appeal proceedings on the appeal of the Kyiv Metropolitanate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church against the decision of the lower court in the case against the State Service of Ukraine for Ethno-politics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS).