Supreme Constitutional Court rules on widow pension eligibility

The Supreme Constitutional Court of Cyprus has rejected an appeal by the Republic and upheld a lower court decision granting a widow's pension to the second wife of a retired civil servant. The official retired in 1986 and married his second wife in 1993, following the death of his first spouse in 1992. Upon the retiree's death in 2016, authorities denied the pension application based on the 2012 Law 216(I), which abolished such benefits for second spouses married after a retiree's retirement. The court determined that the plaintiff had already established a legitimate expectation to receive the pension at the time of her marriage. This expectation constitutes a property right protected by Article 23 of the Constitution and Article 1 of the First Protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights. The judges concluded that the 2012 legislative amendment could not retrospectively strip the woman of her established rights. Consequently, the government must fulfill the pension obligations that existed under previous legal frameworks.