With entry into force of the "Law on the Amendment of the Code of Criminal Procedure and Some Other Codes" ["Amendment Law"] published in the Official Gazette dated July 14, 2021, the terms in the Administrative Procedural Law No. 2577 [“APL”] regulating the silence of the administration against the applications filed are shortened by half. In addition, some crucial changes were introduced to the Turkish Penal Code No. 5237 ["TPC"] and the Criminal Procedural Law No. 5271.
- Article 10 of the APL grants the right to apply to the administrative authorities for an administrative act or action to be carried out prior to seeking judicial remedy before administrative courts. In order to prevent a possible forfeiture in the event that the administration leaves this application unanswered, the inaction of the administration is deemed as the rejection of the application, after a certain period of time. This period, which was regulated as 60 [sixty] days in the APL before the Amendment Law, is now reduced to 30 [thirty] days. In the current situation, an administrative lawsuit can be filed upon the expiry of the 30-day period following the day of application to the administration.
- The status of the applications that have already been filed is also explicitly regulated with a temporary article added to the APL. Accordingly, the 60-day period will be valid for applications made before the effective date of the Amendment Law [i.e., 14.7.2021].
- Pursuant to Article 10 of the APL, the state of "giving an imprecise answer" upon the application filed to the administration is also regulated. As per the previous version of the article, if the applicant preferred to wait for a definitive answer from the relevant administration, the period to file a lawsuit was being suspended for 6 [six] months from the date of the imprecise answer. Now with the Amendment Law, this 6-month waiting period, during which the term of litigation will not run, is reduced to 4 [four] months.
- Another important regulation brought by the Amendment Law is related to the TPC. Accordingly, committing the crimes of willful murder, willful injury, wyte, deprivation of liberty, not only against the current spouse, but also against the divorced spouse, are now included within the scope of aggravating cases, thus require higher punishment.
- The foregoing amendments will be effective as of July 14, 2021, which is the date of publication in the Official Gazette.
By M. Tarik Guleryuz, Partner, and I.Selin Nacar, Associate, Guleryuz & Partners
