Italian Constitutional Court (Corte costituzionale italiana), No. 56/2017, 10 March 2017

Application for leave on electoral grounds.

Art. 51, Constitution
Article 2, par. 5, Law 23/04/1981, No. 154

1. The question of the constitutionality of Article 2, paragraph 5, of Law no. 154 of 1981, censured by the Court of Appeal of Catanzaro - with reference to Article 51 of the Constitution - is declared unfounded. - in so far as it provides that the effects of leave of absence for electoral reasons, accompanied by the effective termination of office, shall run from the decision of the administration or, failing that, from the fifth day after the submission of the application for leave of absence, instead of from the date of submission of the application itself.

2. The alleged immediacy of the effects of the application for leave of absence lends itself to a criticism of unreasonableness, inasmuch as it produces unjustifiably different treatment in melius with respect to resignation, which, although entailing the more onerous consequence of the definitive termination of the employment relationship, remains subject to the time-limit laid down by the contested paragraph.
(The Ordinary Court of Catanzaro declared the disqualification from holding office of a regional councillor of Calabria, due to the existence of a cause of ineligibility at the time of the presentation of the candidature, and replaced him with the appellant, first of the non-elected in the same list).