Wearing Masks in Schools is Mandatory, No Court Ruling Declares it Illegal

On September 16, lawyer Gegham Simonian announced on Facebook that the mandatory requirement to wear masks in schools and other restrictions are illegal, claiming this has been confirmed by a court ruling. The Information Verification Center reports on this matter.

According to the source, it has been revealed that the court did not declare the mandatory requirement to wear masks in educational institutions illegal based on the application No. VD/6107/05/20 submitted by the lawyer on September 10. Instead, the court returned the application to the claimant due to improper submission.

“The application submitted by Gegham Simonian, along with the accompanying documents, was returned. If the errors in the application are corrected and re-submitted to the administrative court within fifteen days after the date of receiving the ruling, it will be considered accepted as of the initial submission date. This ruling goes into effect five days after receipt and can be appealed in the RA Administrative Court of Appeal until it takes effect,” the court ruling states.

The source also notes that according to the government decision No. 1514-N dated September 11, 2020, the educational process in educational and extracurricular institutions is carried out based on the sanitary-epidemiological safety rules established by the authorized body. The Ministry of Education, Science, Culture, and Sports has published a 19-page guideline that establishes the anti-epidemic safety rules for educational institutions.

Additionally, on September 11, 2020, based on the order No. 23-N from the Minister of Health, a list of personal protective measures, their application cases and procedures, and sanitary-epidemiological safety rules were established.

Thus, we can state that lawyer Gegham Simonian's claim that the RA administrative court has ruled on the illegality of the requirement to wear masks in schools does not correspond to reality. We urge the parents of students to follow only official or officially confirmed information.