Constitutional Court: initiation of constitutionality review encouraged proactive elimination of the unlawful requirement for persons with disabilities

Теlegram CС - https://t.me/consot_kz  

 

A citizen appealed to the Constitutional Court to check the constitutionality of paragraph 44 of the Rules for the Transportation of Passengers, Baggage, Cargo Baggage and Mail by Rail, approved by the Order of the Minister of Investment and Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated April 30, 2015 № 545.

He considered that the requirement of the Rules to additionally present a disability document when boarding railway transport contradicts the Constitution. Kazakh citizens with disabilities buy tickets for railway transportation at 50% of the cost of travel on the basis of electronic discount card “Meirim”. Therefore, the re-confirmation of the status, in his opinion, is discriminatory.

The Constitutional Court accepted the appeal. During the proceedings, the General Prosecutor's Office, after examining the appeal, concluded that the Rules were contrary to the Law “On Railway Transport” and sent a protest to the authorized body to eliminate the violation.

As a result, the Ministry of Transport of the Republic of Kazakhstan adopted an amendment order, which came into force on April 11, 2025, and abolished the unreasonable additional requirement for boarding Kazakh citizens with disabilities.

Thus, the constitutional challenge incentivized the executive state agency to proactively address the violation prior to the final decision on the audit. Due to the elimination of the violation in the departmental order, the Constitutional Court terminated the proceedings.