Refusal to return a driving licence comprising vehicle category entitlements previously held and not covered by the driving ban imposed as a penal measure SK 23/21
On 4 July 2023, the Constitutional Tribunal delivered the ruling issued with regard to Mr M.P.’s constitutional complaint, which concerned refusal to return a driving licence comprising refusal to return a driving licence comprising vehicle category entitlements previously held and not covered by the driving ban imposed as a penal measure.
The Constitutional Tribunal adjudicated that Article 12(2)(2) and Article 12(2)(3) in conjunction with Article 12(1)(2) of the Act of 5 January 2011 on Vehicle Drivers – insofar as under the provisions the holders of certain vehicle category entitlements are deprived of their right to recover the document confirming their holding of such entitlements to certain motorised vehicles not covered by the driving ban imposed on the said persons as a penal measure – are inconsistent with Article 2 and Article 45(1) of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland.
Moreover, the Constitutional Tribunal decided to discontinue the proceedings as to the remainder.
The ruling was adopted by a majority vote.
The complainant was punished twice for the same prohibited act – i.e. for driving a motorised vehicle under the influence of alcohol – by the following: (i) the competent court which, on the basis of Article 42(2) and Article 43(1) of the Criminal Code, imposed the penal measure in the form of a 5-year ban on driving motorised vehicles requiring the B category driving licence; and (ii) the competent poviat governor[i] who, on the basis of the challenged provisions of the Act on Vehicle Drivers, declined to recover a driving licence for categories AM, A1, A2, A, B1, C1, C, C+E, B+E, C1+E.
In formal terms, the above-mentioned sanctions fall under two diverse legal regimes, namely: the penal measure in the form of a driving ban constitutes a criminal-law sanction, whereas refusal to recover the driving licence concerning specific vehicle categories is an administrative-law sanction. However, in essence, both those sanctions are characterised by a similar degree of burdensomeness and fulfil the same goal i.e. they are aimed at maintaining road traffic safety and they play similar roles – a preventive role and a repressive one.
When adopting Article 12(2)(2) and Article 12(2)(3) of the Act on Vehicle Drivers, the legislator extended the scope of the driving ban that may be imposed by a common court with regard to the driving licences for categories B, C1, C, D1 or D to include other categories under that regulation. Consequently, the criminal-law sanction in the form of the driving ban imposed as a penal measure by the competent common court is made more severe.
The challenged provisions lead to the situation where regardless of the content of the common court’s ruling in which the perpetrator of a prohibited act or a misdemeanour is punished with the penal measure in the form of a ban on driving certain vehicles, by virtue of the challenged provisions the said perpetrator will also be deprived of the possibility to legally drive other vehicles.
Due to the fact that the Constitutional Tribunal’s judgment concerned the constitutionality of the challenged provisions within the specified scope, the outcome of the judgment does not entail that Article 12(2)(2) and Article 12(2)(3) in conjunction with Article 12(1)(2) of the Act on Vehicle Drivers will cease to have effect, but it consists in the elimination of the normative content which has been indicated as unconstitutional in the operative part of the judgment.
Consequently, a public administration authority may not deprive the holders of certain vehicle category entitlements of their right to recover the document confirming their holding of such entitlements to certain motorised vehicles not covered by the driving ban imposed on the said persons as a penal measure.
The adjudicating bench in the case was composed of: Judge Bogdan Święczkowski – Presiding Judge; Judge Andrzej Zielonacki – Judge Rapporteur; Judge Stanisław Piotrowicz; Judge Piotr Pszczółkowski; Judge Jakub Stelina.
[i] Poviat – a unit of the administrative division of Poland