Legal issue: the constitutionality of the rule which precludes giving timely notification to authorities about an envisaged public gathering, because the period provided by this rule for such notification fully coincides with non-working days (holidays).
Ratio decidendi: the sole purpose of rational organisation of activities of public authorities may not, as the Court repeatedly pointed out, serve as grounds for restriction of rights and freedoms; the exclusion of the opportunity to conduct a public gathering on the day chosen by its organiser – given that there is no weighty justification of the kind envisaged by Art 55 (part 3) of the Russian Constitution – may be regarded as a derogation of the right to peaceful assemblies guaranteed by the Constitution. Thus, the contested rule does not correspond to the Constitution; the federal legislator must amend the law in order to rectify the problem.
