On June 1, 2023, the Constitutional Court of Georgia granted a constitutional lawsuit in the case of Public Defender of Georgia v. the Parliament of Georgia,[1] and declared the dismissal of the employees of the Special Penitentiary Service due to their age unconstitutional.

The Law of Georgia on the Special Penitentiary Service imposed a blanket restriction on all persons with a junior special rank above the age of 60 and dismissed them from their positions regardless of their health or functional data.

The Constitutional Court evaluated the constitutionality of the disputed norms in relation to the right to equality and stated that the state-sponsored labour relations was to some extent a state resource, to which every citizen should have equal access.

Accordingly, the blanket restriction established by the contested norm, which did not provide for the possibility of making individual decisions based on the evaluation of persons, was not rationally related to the legitimate goal of ensuring the effective and smooth operation of the Penitentiary Service. Thus, the court stated that there was no objective or reasonable justification for different treatment based on age.[2]

[1] The ruling of the Constitutional Court of Georgia of June 1, 2023, Merab Muradashvili and the Public Defender of Georgia v. the Parliament of Georgia and the Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia, available at: https://www.constcourt.ge/ka/judicial-acts?legal=15506

[2] Ibid., II-70-72.