SAVICKIS AND OTHERS v. LATVIA JUDGMENT THE LAW I. PRELIMINARY REMARKS A. The first applicant’s death 90. The Court notes at the outset that the first applicant, Mr Jurijs Savickis, died while the application was pending before the Court, and that no heir or close relative has expressed the wish to pursue the application on his behalf (see paragraph 20 above). It is the Court’s usual practice to strike applications out of the list of cases in the absence of any heir or close relative who has expressed the wish to pursue an application (see, among many other examples, Mraović v. Croatia (striking out) [GC], no. 30373/13, § 24, 9 April 2021). The Court finds no special circumstances regarding respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and its Protocols that would require the Court to continue the examination of that part of the application pursuant to Article 37 § 1 in fine of the Convention. It is therefore appropriate to strike this particular application out of the list of cases in so far as the first applicant is concerned (Article 37 § 1 (c) of the Convention). 91. Nevertheless, for practical reasons, Mr Savickis will continue to be called “the first applicant” in the present judgment, and the name of the case will not be changed (see, mutatis mutandis, Ahmet Sadık v. Greece, 15 November 1996, § 3, Reports 1996-V; Dalban v. Romania [GC], no. 28114/95, § 1, ECHR 1999-VI; Vasiljević and Drobnjaković v. Serbia (dec.), nos. 43987/11 and 51910/15, § 42, 28 January 2020; and Ghavalyan v. Armenia, no. 50423/08, § 60, 22 October 2020). Any mention of “the applicants” in the remainder of this judgment must be understood as referring to the four remaining applicants. B. Scope of the case 1. The parties’ arguments 92. The respondent Government argued, first of all, that the scope of the case should be limited to those complaints which the applicants had brought before the District Administrative Court and the Constitutional Court. Accordingly, the case should be limited to the employment periods and the years of compulsory military service which had accrued outside the territory of Latvia prior to 1 January 1991 and were not included in the calculation of the relevant retirement pensions. 93. Regarding the scope of the present case, the respondent Government emphasised that its subject matter was neither an entitlement to an old-age pension – as each of the applicants was insured and received an old-age pension – nor any difference between the applicants and Latvian nationals in respect of the period since the restoration of Latvia’s independence in 33