JUDICIAL RECESS (JUDICIAL HOLIDAY) IN TURKEY
JUDICIAL RECESS (JUDICIAL HOLIDAY) IN TURKEY
Judicial Holiday (Judicial vacation, called Adli Tatil in Turkish) is an important concept related to the judicial system in Turkey. The Judicial holiday refers to the period during which legal proceedings orders of the courts are suspended. The main purpose of the judicial holiday is to increase the efficiency of the judicial system and to balance the workload of the members of the judiciary. Members and the staff of the judiciary include judges, prosecutors, lawyers, court clerks, and Ministry of Justice personnel. After long and intensive working hours, the judicial holiday provides judicial employees with the opportunity to rest physically and mentally. While these are undoubtedly advantageous aspects of the judicial holiday, some judicial employees consider the judicial holiday to be disadvantageous, arguing that justice is delayed because cases cannot be heard and that this is a violation of the right to a trial within a reasonable time.
The judicial holiday in Turkey dates to the early years of the Republic of Turkey. In the early years of the Republic, agriculture was the mainstay of the Turkish economy, and a large part of the population was engaged in agricultural activities. Therefore, it was of great importance to develop agriculture and increase production. Since agriculture is an activity that intensifies at certain times depending on weather conditions and seasons, farmers had to take care of their fields and harvest their crops during these periods in Turkey. For this reason, the judicial vacation period was planned to consider the peak times for agricultural work. Nowadays different opinions have formed regarding the timetable of the judicial recess. The idea is that Turkey is no longer an agricultural state so the purpose of starting a rest period during harvest season is not efficient. The country is divided in four different climates and that creates an imbalance. For example the city of Erzurum in the far east region reaches temperatures as low as -20 Celsius during winter at the mean time, another big city in the west, İzmir is 15 degrees Celsius. Despite the harsh climate Erzurum’s court buildings are still active during the winter. Just this example show that there is a problem about the time period of the judicial recess.
In our country, the judicial holiday starts on July 20 and ends on August 31 every year per Article 102 of the Turkish Code of Civil Procedure (CCP). It covers a period of 43 days. The new judicial period begins on September 1st. During this period, courts, as a rule, suspend judicial activities. However, there are some exceptions to this. These exceptions are listed in Article 103 of the Code of Civil Procedure.
In Turkey, Under Article 103 of the CCP, only the following cases and proceedings shall be heard during the judicial vacation:
– Provisional legal protection such as precautionary injunction, precautionary attachment, interim legal protection such as the determination of evidence, requests for the taking of marine reports and the appointment of a dispatcher, as well as the objections to be made against them and the decision on other applications,
– All kinds of alimony cases and cases or matters related to paternity, custody, and guardianship,
– Correction of civil registry records and lawsuits,
– Lawsuits filed by employees due to service contracts or employment contracts.
– Requests for the issuance of a certificate of loss due to the loss of commercial books and cancellation works arising from the loss of negotiable instruments,
– Bankruptcy, concordat, and restructuring of capital companies and cooperatives through reconciliation,
– Discoveries decided to be held during the judicial holiday,
– Cases and matters falling within the jurisdiction of the court according to the arbitration provisions,
– Non-contentious judicial proceedings.
– Cases and proceedings which are stated to be urgent in the laws or which are decided to be heard urgently by the court upon the request of one of the parties,
– According to Article 331 of the Code of Criminal Procedure , during the vacation period, the regional courts of appeal and the Court of Cassation shall only examine the cases related to the detained sentences or the cases following the Law on the Procedure for the Prosecution of Capital Crimes.
– According to Article 62 of the Administrative Trial Procedure Law ,
- a) Matters pertaining to stay of execution and determination of evidence,
- b) Matters which are required by law to be decided within a certain period of time.”
In the listed cases, judicial holiday does not prevent the judicial process. By the principle of numerus clausus, legal proceedings other than these cases shall not be heard during the judicial holiday. The procedures of receiving the petitions, making decisions, notification procedures, and sending the file to the appeal or appellate authorities regarding the cases and affairs other than the text of the article continues.
At the same time, pursuant to Article 104 of the CCP, in cases and proceedings subject to judicial holiday, if the expiration of the periods determined by the law coincides with the holiday period, these periods shall be deemed to be extended by one week from the day the judicial holiday ends, without the need for a separate court decision. However, this regulation is only related to the periods determined in the Code of Civil Procedure.
In criminal proceedings, there is a different regulation regarding the periods during the judicial holiday. According to this regulation, the periods coinciding with the judicial holiday shall not run and these periods shall be deemed to be extended for three days from the day the holiday ends. In the administrative jurisdiction, the same situation applies as in the civil jurisdiction, and if the expiry of the periods determined by the law coincides with the judicial holiday, these periods will be extended for seven days following the end of the holiday. This applies to all deadlines provided for in the Code of Administrative Procedure.
In conclusion, Turkish court system tries to give a much-needed rest time to it’s members of judicial system, however in doing so it slows the judicial process so that the agriculture sector can deal with the harvest instead of their law disputes. The system tries to compensate by having some cases and proceedings still continue even though the judicial recess has begun. Temmuz 2023
Av. Mustafa Barış SARIOĞLU
Stj. Av. Boran Utku Özer
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