EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS
FIRST SECTION
CASE OF PRIVALIKHIN v. RUSSIA
(Application No. 38029/05)
JUDGMENT <*>
(Strasbourg, 12.V.2010)
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<*> This judgment will become final in the circumstances set out in Article 44 § 2 of the Convention. It may be subject to editorial revision.
In the case of Privalikhin v. Russia,
The European Court of Human Rights (First Section), sitting as a Chamber composed of:
Christos Rozakis, President,
Nina {Vajic} <*>,
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<*> Здесь и далее по тексту слова на национальном языке набраны латинским шрифтом и выделены фигурными скобками.
Anatoly Kovler,
Elisabeth Steiner,
Khanlar Hajiyev,
Dean Spielmann,
Giorgio Malinverni, judges,
and {Soren} Nielsen, Section Registrar,
Having deliberated in private on 22 April 2010,
Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on that date:
PROCEDURE
1. The case originated in an application (No. 38029/05) against the Russian Federation lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms ("the Convention") by a Russian national, Mr Nikolay Petrovich Privalikhin ("the applicant"), on 21 October 2005.
2. The Russian Government ("the Government") were initially represented by Mr P. Laptev, former Representative of the Russian Federation at the European Court of Human Rights, and subsequently by Ms V. Milinchuk, former Representative of the Russian Federation at the European Court of Human Rights.
3. On 10 November 2005 the President of the First Section decided to give notice of the application to the Government. It was also decided to examine the merits of the application at the same time as its admissibility (Article 29 § 3).
4. On 2 May 2007 the President of the Chamber decided, under Rule 54 § 2 (c) of the Rules of Court, that the Government should be invited to submit further written observations in respect of applicability of Article 6 of the Convention to the proceedings that the applicant had brought against the authorities in the present case. The Government did not submit any submissions in this respect.
THE FACTS
I. The circumstances of the case
5. The applicant was born in 1955 and lives in Berdsk, a town in the Novosibirsk Region.
A. Court proceedings
6. The applicant is a public prosecutor.
7. On an unspecified date in early 2003 he applied for a free housing provided by law for this category of state officials.
8. By judgment of 21 April 2003 the Tsentralny District Court of Novosibirsk ruled in favour of the applicant and ordered the local and regional authorities jointly
"...to provide [the applicant] with a flat in a State or municipal housing for a family of four people with a living surface measuring 36 sq. metres, and taking into account the applicant's right to an additional living area of not less than 20 sq. metres or in the form of a separate room..."
9. Upon the respondent's appeal, the judgment was upheld by the Novosibirsk Regional Court on appeal on 17 June 2003. On that day the judgment became binding.
B. Enforcement proceedings
10. The respondents did not enforce the judgment immediately. On 28 and 30 July 2003, the Bailiff's Office ("the bailiffs") initiated enforcement proceedings.
11. According to the Government, the Novosibirsk Regional Administration was unable to execute the judgment as, pursuant to Decree of 27 December
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