5.  The applicant is a Czech national born in 1946 who lives in Vysoké Mýto (the Czech Republic). 6.  The applicant was married from 1971 until 1998, when he divorced. On 28 May 1998 the applicant applied for custody of two of his four children, born in 1982 and 1985, maintaining that since August 1997 he and his wife had not lived together and that he cared for the two minor children himself.
In a judgment of 16 July 1998 the Ústí nad Orlicí District Court awarded the applicant custody of the two children. 7.  On 14 November 2003 the Czech Social Security Administration (Česká správa sociálního zabezpečení) dismissed an application by the applicant for a retirement pension as he had not attained the pensionable age required by section 32 of the Pension Insurance Act, which was, in his case, sixty-one years and ten months. 8.  The applicant challenged the administrative decision before the Hradec Králové Regional Court (Krajský soud), arguing that given the fact that he had cared for two children, he was entitled to retire at the age of fifty-seven and had therefore reached the pensionable age. 9.  On 1 December 2004 the Regional Court stayed the proceedings in the applicant's case pending the outcome of the proceedings before the Constitutional Court (Ústavní soud), which was called upon to review the constitutionality of section 32 of the Pension Insurance Act in another case (no. Pl. ÚS 53/2004) brought before it by the Supreme Administrative Court (Nejvyšší správní soud). The Hradec Králové Regional Court joined the proceedings in that case as an intervening party. 10.  In judgment no. Pl. ÚS 53/2004 of 16 October 2007 the Constitutional Court dismissed the Supreme Administrative Court's petition to repeal section 32 of the Pension Insurance Act, finding that it was not discriminatory and was therefore compatible with Article 1 and Article 3 § 1, in conjunction with Article 30 § 1, of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms. 11.  On 12 December 2007 the Regional Court dismissed the applicant's action, referring to the Constitutional Court's judgment no. Pl. ÚS 53/2004. 12.  By a judgment of 13 June 2008 the Supreme Administrative Court dismissed a cassation appeal by the applicant, relying on the aforesaid judgment of the Constitutional Court. 13.  Subsequently, the applicant lodged a constitutional appeal in which he alleged, inter alia, a violation of Article 14 of the Convention and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1. 14.  On 30 October 2008 the Constitutional Court rejected the constitutional appeal as manifestly ill-founded, emphasising, in particular, the discretion afforded to the legislature to implement preferential treatment, the objective and reasonable aim pursued by this preferential treatment of women and the relationship of proportionality between the means employed and the aim pursued.