Riigikogu
Riigikogu
Skip navigation

Riigikogu

The Riigikogu deliberated the Proposal No 13 of the Chancellor of Justice: Consideration of the principle of legitimate expectation upon revocation of the identity document of an Estonian citizen when an administrative authority has erroneously defined a person as an Estonian citizen .

The Chancellor of Justice Indrek Teder noted that, in this particular case, the fundamental question is if the Citizenship Act is in conformity with the Constitution as regards the impossibility of consideration of the principle of legitimate expectation when an administrative authority has erroneously defined a person as belonging to Estonian citizenship on the basis of the Citizenship Act which entered into force on 1 April 1995 and has issued a passport of the Estonia citizen to him or her without legal basis.

Teder found that, in the case of these persons, the principle of legitimate expectation must be applied if a person has acted in good faith upon application for the identity document of an Estonian citizen and the person has been defined as an Estonian citizen as a result of an error of an administrative authority. On the basis of that, Teder made a proposal to bring the relevant provisions of the Citizenship Act into conformity with the Constitution. “In order to effectively ensure the rights of persons, it is necessary to also provide provisions concerning the retroactive effect of the relevant regulation, for bringing the Citizenship Act into conformity with the Constitution, in order to solve the situations where an administrative authority has already revoked the identity documents of an Estonian citizen,” the Chancellor of Justice stressed. 

The Chairman of the Constitutional Committee Rait Maruste gave an overview of the discussion which had been held in the Committee. The Committee supported this proposal of the Chancellor of Justice and found that it is necessary to initiate a legislative procedure for amending the Citizenship Act. 

Jevgeni Ossinovski, Yana Toom, Marko Pomerants and Andres Anvelt took the floor during the debate. 

The plenary assembly of the Riigikogu supported the proposal of the Chancellor of Justice with 67 votes in favour. 

The Riigikogu Press Service

 

Feedback