AT THE MEETING OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL COUNCIL HAS BEEN PARTICIPATED ELBASY

А meeting of the Constitutional Council was held on the submission of the Alatau District Court of Almaty on declaring unconstitutional subparagraph 8) Article 107 of the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan «On Housing Relations» on January 21, 2020.
As reported earlier, in the submission of the court, questions of ensuring the housing rights of citizens were raised. According to this norm, the eviction of a tenant, his/her family members or other persons jointly residing with him/her shall be allowed if they acquire another beneficially owned dwelling place, regardless of location area.
The reason for court appeal was legislative issues, in connection with which the courts and local executive bodies made decisions on evicting families from state rental housing, if at least one of the family members purchased other housing. In most cases, these cases concerned large families, orphans and other socially vulnerable categories of citizens.
According to paragraph 1 of Article 71 of the Constitution, the First President of the Republic - Elbasy, and the life member of the Constitutional Council Nursultan Nazarbayev participated at the meeting of the Council on this appeal.
Opening the meeting, the Chairman of the Constitutional Council, Kairat Mami stated that it was a significant event in the history of the constitutional development of the Republic, since Elbasy, for the first time as a life member of the Council, participated in the consideration of a socially significant issue related to ensuring the quality of population life.
In his speech Elbasy said that «the issues of realization of citizens’ housing rights has always been a priority area of state social policy. On my assignments, several state programs were implemented that gave a powerful impetus to housing construction and made housing affordable for many Kazakhstan people. The position of the Constitutional Council will contribute to the solution of housing issues of the population. Respect and strict observance of the Basic Law is the key to the successful development of the country. This is especially an actual in the year of 25th Anniversary».
The Council’s composition heard opinions of representatives of the Government, the Senate, the Mazhilis of the Parliament, the Supreme Court, the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Ministries of Justice, Industry and Infrastructure Development, the Commissioner for Children's Rights.
As experts, presented their conclusions the legal scholars, doctors of law, professors Sara Idrysheva and Tolesh Kaudyrov, as well as associate professor Elena Nesterova.
The Constitutional Council declared unconstitutional subparagraph 8)  Article 107 the Law «On Housing Relations». 
The Constitutional Council considers that the possibility of evicting people from rented housing is one of the ways to prevent unjustified use of state housing guarantees by tenants. 
However, the decision of law enforcement bodies on eviction should not be made upon the fact of acquiring other housing property, but considering the legitimate interests of citizens in each specific situation. At the same time, the number of members of the tenant's family, the space of rented and purchased apartment, housing provision norms and other circumstances shall be taken into account.
As the Council found the construction of legal norm does not allow ensuring its uniform understanding and application that entails an infringement of the constitutional rights of citizens.
Thus, it is not clear from the meaning of the norm that the purchase of different dwelling by what composition of persons is the basis for eviction from a rental apartment. The circle of evicted citizens is also unclear. The semantic non-identity of its texts on Kazakh and Russian languages is established. 
The indicated issues, as the Council stated, give rise to disputes and underlie the lack of a single judicial practice on the application of rule of law. 
In this regard, the Constitutional Council recommended to the Government amend the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan «On Housing Relations» and other legal acts.
Courts and other law enforcement bodies before adoption the necessary regulatory measures are required to ensure the direct operation of the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan and be guided by the regulatory decision of the Council.   
The full text of the regulatory decision has been published in the press and on the Internet resource of the Constitutional Council.