The Supreme Court forbade controllers to take away the card of a Muscovite from passengers

The Supreme Court of Russia declared illegal the seizure of documents with personal data from passengers by public transport controllers. According to the ruling of the court.pdf), legal norms allow controllers to withdraw only an expired or obviously someone else’s card, but not a valid document.

Kirill Chernyshev, a student at a Moscow university, filed a complaint with the Supreme Court, from whom the controller took away the social card of a Muscovite. Mr. Chernyshev emphasized that the information provided in the document (photo, full name, MHI policy number) confirmed that he was the owner of the card. In addition, the map shows data on its validity period and the grounds for granting benefits – studying at a university.

However, during one of the trips in public transport, the controller of the State Unitary Enterprise “Mosgortrans” asked him to present a student ID card to confirm the status of the cardholder. After Kirill Chernyshev refused to provide a student ID card, the controller withdrew his Muscovite social card.

Mr. Chernyshev appealed to the court with an administrative statement of claim to recognize the actions of the controller of the State Unitary Enterprise “Mosgortrans” as illegal. However, three court instances did not support his claims, considering that in order to travel, the privileged category of passengers is obliged to present a document confirming the payment of the fare and a document confirming the right to the privilege. After that, the student appealed to the Supreme Court.

Based on the results of the consideration of the case, the Supreme Court declared illegal the actions of the controller of the State Unitary Enterprise Mosgortrans. According to the court decision, the controller has the right to confiscate the social card of a Muscovite from a passenger only in two cases: if it does not belong to him or if its validity period has expired. No other grounds for withdrawal are provided.

Since the controller did not dispute that Kirill Chernyshev possessed a valid Muscovite card, as well as the fact that the trip was registered using this card, the controller of State Unitary Enterprise Mosgortrans did not have the right to withdraw it, the Supreme Court ruled. “In this regard, there were no grounds to consider the passage of Kirill Chernyshev without a ticket, and there was no reason to consider his Muscovite card to be confiscated from the administrative defendant,” the court ruling says.

Milena Kostereva