The Territorial Recruitment Center denied a deferral to a student of a Polish university due to the absence of one certificate — the court overturned the decision

The Vinnytsia District Administrative Court considered case No. 120/13078/25 filed by a conscripted individual against the Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Center regarding the recognition of the unlawful decision to refuse a deferral from conscription during mobilization and the obligation to reconsider the relevant application.

The dispute arose after the commission on deferral issues again refused the applicant a deferral from conscription for military service during mobilization, citing the failure to provide a certificate of education issued from the Unified State Electronic Database on Education (USEDE).

Circumstances of the case

The court established that the plaintiff is a conscripted individual registered for military service. Since August 2024, he has been enrolled in the Economic and Humanitarian Academy in Warsaw in the full-time Logistics program.

In September 2024, he applied to the Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Center for a deferral from conscription during mobilization under paragraph 1 of part 3 of article 23 of the Law "On Mobilization Preparation and Mobilization" as a full-time higher education student.

The commission refused to grant the deferral. This decision was appealed to the court.

By the decision of the Vinnytsia District Administrative Court in case No. 120/16684/24, the previous refusal by the commission was recognized as unlawful and canceled. The court obliged the Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Center to reconsider the deferral application taking into account the court's conclusions.

Following this decision, the application was reconsidered. As a result, the commission again refused the deferral, citing the absence of a certificate of education from USEDE of the established form as the basis for refusal.

Disagreeing with the repeated refusal, the plaintiff again appealed to the administrative court.

The plaintiff argued that the certificate from USEDE is issued by Ukrainian educational institutions that have access to the relevant state electronic database. Since he is a student of a foreign educational institution, obtaining such a certificate is objectively impossible. At the same time, documents confirming his study abroad and the right to a deferral during mobilization were submitted with the application.

The defendant insisted that according to paragraph 62 of the Procedure for conscription of citizens for military service during mobilization, approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Resolution No. 560, the mandatory document to confirm the status of a student is a certificate from USEDE. In the defendant's opinion, the submitted documents did not properly confirm the right to a deferral, so the refusal decision was lawful.

Court conclusions

Providing a legal assessment of the disputed relations, the court analyzed the provisions of the Law "On Mobilization Preparation and Mobilization," the Law "On Military Duty and Military Service," and Procedure No. 560.

The court noted that paragraph 1 of part 3 of article 23 of the Law "On Mobilization Preparation and Mobilization" provides the right to a deferral for students of professional, vocational pre-higher, and higher education studying full-time or dual forms of education and meeting the conditions defined by law.

The court also noted that paragraph 62 of Procedure No. 560 indeed requires submission of a certificate of education issued from USEDE.

At the same time, the court established that the Unified State Electronic Database on Education is a state information system of Ukraine, owned by the state of Ukraine, administered by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, and technically managed by the state enterprise "Inforesurs."

The court concluded that foreign educational institutions do not have access to USEDE and therefore cannot issue certificates of education in the form provided by Appendix 9 to Procedure No. 560.

The court found that the plaintiff provided documents confirming his enrollment in a Polish educational institution, full-time study, and continuation of studies during the relevant period.

Under these circumstances, the court concluded that the absence of a certificate from USEDE, which a foreign educational institution cannot issue, cannot be grounds to deprive a person of the right to a deferral from conscription during mobilization as provided by article 23 of the Law "On Mobilization Preparation and Mobilization."

Additionally, the court referred to articles 23, 24, and 53 of the Constitution of Ukraine, which guarantee the right to free personal development, equality of citizens before the law, and the right to education.

The court also noted that the authority did not prove the legality of the decision made, while the plaintiff provided proper evidence confirming the circumstances on which the claims were based.

Court decision

The Vinnytsia District Administrative Court satisfied the claim. The court recognized as unlawful and canceled the commission's decision recorded in protocol No. 27 regarding the refusal to grant a deferral from conscription for military service during mobilization.

The court also obliged the Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Center to reconsider the deferral application under paragraph 1 of part 3 of article 23 of the Law "On Mobilization Preparation and Mobilization" taking into account the legal position set out in the court's decision.

Furthermore, the court ordered the recovery of the court fee of 1,211.20 UAH in favor of the plaintiff at the expense of the defendant's budget allocations.

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