SOCIAL CARDS ARE NO OBLIGATION FOR PENSIONERS
By Gohar Gevorgian

AZG Armenian Daily
11/10/2006

Many people who refused to have social cards were deprived of their
right to get pensions, when about three years ago RA law "On social
cards" was adopted.

In the interview to "Azg," most of them explained their decision to
refuse having social cards by religious reasons.

After three years of struggle in the court instances, the Armenian
Constitutional Law Protection Center and the lawyer of the center
Arayik Papikian were a success. According to the verdict ofm RA
Constitutional Court, the first of the cases on the issue of the
pensioners was legally settled, on October 4. The Constitutional Court
recognized the second point of the article # 11 of the abovementioned
law as invalid by its decision # 649. The pensioners Manoushak
Kocharian and Hranoush Davtian won their case. Besides, all of the
sub-legislative acts that used to force the pensioners get the social
cards lost their legal force. Thus, according to the verdict of RA
Constitutional Court, the social card is not an obligatory document
any longer and the citizens can get them due to their own will.

The representtatives of the Armenian Constitutional Law Protection
Center assured that the pensioners will get their pesnions, benefits
and salaries that they failed to get for about 20 months.