Psychiatrist referred for inpatient care, but the Military Medical Commission already declared fit: appeal sided with the conscript
The Eighth Administrative Court of Appeal concluded that the military medical commission prematurely decided on the citizen's fitness for military service without ensuring the necessary psychiatric examination and without fully clarifying his health condition. The court annulled the Military Medical Commission's decision and ordered a repeated medical examination.
Case circumstances
The citizen appealed to the court demanding to cancel the decision of the military medical commission that recognized him as fit for military service and to oblige the commission to conduct a repeated medical examination.
The plaintiff argued that the medical examination was conducted formally and incompletely. In particular, the commission did not consider the referral for inpatient psychiatric examination to confirm or clarify the diagnosis of "mixed anxiety-depressive disorder" and to determine the severity of mental disorders. In his opinion, this indicated non-compliance with the established procedure for conducting military medical expertise.
The Volyn District Administrative Court denied the claim, considering that the plaintiff did not prove the illegality of the Military Medical Commission's conclusion about his fitness for military service.
Position of the appellate court
Upon reviewing the case, the appellate court noted that the materials included a psychiatrist's referral for inpatient examination of the plaintiff due to mixed anxiety-depressive disorder. Also attached were certificates from the psychiatric hospital about his inpatient treatment. At the same time, the defendants did not provide evidence that the necessary psychiatric examination was conducted and its results were considered when making the decision on fitness for military service.
The panel of judges stated that under such circumstances, the medical examination cannot be considered properly conducted. The absence of evidence of conducting and considering the results of inpatient psychiatric examination indicates non-compliance with the medical examination procedure established by the Regulation on Military Medical Expertise in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
At the same time, the court emphasized that it is not authorized to assess the correctness of the established diagnosis or independently determine the fitness or unfitness of a person for military service. Such matters fall within the competence of military medical commissions and require special medical knowledge. The court's task in such disputes is to verify whether the procedure for making the Military Medical Commission's decision was followed.
According to the appellate court, the Military Medical Commission's decision on the plaintiff's fitness for military service was premature because his health condition was not fully examined.
Court decision
The Eighth Administrative Court of Appeal satisfied the appeal, annulled the decision of the Volyn District Administrative Court, and issued a new ruling.
The court recognized as illegal and annulled the Military Medical Commission's decision documented by certificate No. 37/13 dated February 6, 2025, which declared the plaintiff fit for military service. Also, in case 140/5064/25, the court obliged the Military Medical Commission to conduct a repeated medical examination to determine the degree of fitness for military service, taking into account the court's conclusions. During the new examination, the commission must ensure the inpatient psychiatric examination is conducted and consider all provided medical documents, including the outpatient medical record and other information about the plaintiff's health condition.
Additionally, the court ordered reimbursement of the court fees paid by the plaintiff for filing the claim and the appeal.
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