Вид на акта
искане
Дата
01-01-1970 г.
Към дело
/

DECISION No. 10 OF JULY 4, 1996 ON CC No. 8/96

The Constitutional Court ruling rejected the challenge of Art. 70 para 2 of the Law on Medicines and Pharmacies in Humanitarian Medicine (LMPHM) by the Chief Prosecutor of the Republic providing that state and municipal hospitals can allow on their premises only municipality-owned pharmacies.
The Constitutional Court ruled that the provision challenged was not in contravention to the Constitution as it deals with a legislative prerogative that the Constitution recognises vis a vis the state-owned and municipality-owned entities (Art. 17 para 4 of the C.). The provision of Art. 70 para 2 of the LMPHM fits entirely to the Constitution norm - Art. 17 para 4 and directly derives from it. The practice that Art. 70 para 2 of the LMPHM creates remains the practice of state- or municipality-owned entities.
The same Constitutional Court decision found Art. 72 of the LMPHM, the section concerning the persons under Art. 68 para 1 subparas 2 and 3 of this Law to be in contravention to the Constitution. The norm of Art. 72 of the LMPHM draws a demarcation line between pharmacies on grounds of who owns them. It is only municipalities that can be licensed to open more than one pharmacy. This right is denied to commercial companies that are owned by pharmacists, to co-operatives of pharmacists, even to the hospitals for the needs of treatment.
It is easy to note the contravention of this provision to Art. 19 paras 2 and 4 of the C. The legal provision does not create "equal legal conditions for business" as required by the text in Art. 19 para 2 of the C. By forbidding commercial companies and co-operatives to open more than one pharmacy Art. 72 of the LMPHM as a matter of fact curtails the citizens' right to set up co-operatives and other forms of association in pursuit of economic and social prosperity as provided for by Art. 19 para 4 of the C.