Information regarding the regulatory resolution of the Constitutional Court
(No. 55 of 4 December 2024)
The Constitutional Court considered the appeal of a citizen on verification of the conformity to the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan of paragraph 6 of Article 37 of the Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan ‘On Marriage (Matrimony) and Family’ (the Code).
This norm establishes that to the claims of spouses on the division of the common property of spouses whose marriage (matrimony) has been dissolved, a three-year limitation period applies, which begins to run from the date of dissolution of the marriage (matrimony).
The applicant believes that the above provision of the Code restricts her right to dispose of property acquired legally during marriage (matrimony). After the expiry of the prescribed period of time, the court refused to satisfy her claim for allocation of a share in the common property by recovering a sum of money from the defendant (former spouse) with reference to the said provision of the Code.
The Constitutional Court notes that the establishment by the legislator of a three-year limitation period for claims for the division of the spouses' common property from the moment of the dissolution of the marriage (matrimony) equates the very fact of the dissolution of the marriage (matrimony) to a violation of a right. Based on the consequences of the application of the limitation period, a legal situation is created in which the spouses' ability to divide their common joint property is artificially limited in all cases where, after the division of property, either of them discovered the fact of violation of their right or legally protected interests.
Thus, the current norm creates discrimination against former spouses defending their rights in the division of common joint property, unlike other persons defending their property rights and interests in court with the application of the general limitation period established by the Civil Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
The establishment of such a requirement restricts the former spouses in access to justice for the protection and restoration of violated rights and, as a consequence, infringes on the very right to have in private ownership any legally acquired property, namely a share in the property acquired during the marriage (matrimony).
As a result of the verification, the Constitutional Court concluded that the norm of Article 37(6) of the Code on the calculation of the limitation period from the date of dissolution of marriage (matrimony) does not comply with the Constitution in the part of the words ‘from the date of the dissolution of the marriage (matrimony)’.