The Constitutional Court (“Court”) invalidated the “Subject matter exceeds one hundred thousand Turkish liras” section of the 1st paragraph of Article 3 of Administrative Procedural Law No. 2577 (“Law”), ruling it contrary to Art. 13 and 36 of the Constitution and the rest of the provision due to paragraph (4) of Art. 43 of Law No. 6216 on the Establishment and
Rules of Procedures of the Constitutional Court.
As regards the cases worth below the amount in question, this rule imposes a limitation on the right to request a review of the court decision, since it prevents the regional administrative court from being able to appeal against its decisions on the merits of the case by annulling the decision of the first instance court.
As the monetary limit subject to the rule is updated every year, it may be applied in different ways at different stages as of the date of the action or acts, the date of application to the administration, the date of the lawsuit, the date of the decision of the court of first instance or the date of the decision of the appellate authority. In addition, there is no provision in the laws regulating legal remedies in administrative proceedings as to which of these dates will be considered when determining the valid monetary limit for appealing against regional administrative court decisions.
Thus, a decision that was previously subject to appeal due to trial processes may become final as of the decision date of the regional administrative court.
In this context, as the monetary limit for which decisions subject to appeal is updated yearly, the law must be regulated
in a clear and predictable manner as to the date on which the appeal can be filed, according to the monetary limit. In this respect, since the rule does not clearly regulate the date on which the monetary limit will be applied in terms of appeal and in a way that does not leave room for hesitation, the rule does not meet the requirement of legality. The rule is contrary to the requirement that rights and freedoms be limited by law, as regulated in Article 13 of the Constitution.
According to the Court, the provision is further contrary to the proportionality principle in Art. 13 of the Constitution.
Although the finality of the decisions given in some cases that may be considered unimportant in terms of procedural economy and the principles of trial within a reasonable time does not constitute a contradiction with the right to request the review of the decision (AYM, E.2022/135, K.2023/30, 16/2/2023, § 35), if the administrative court appeal accepts the appeal and annul the decision of the first instance court and give a decision on the merits of the case, the inability to appeal against this decision may be contrary to the right to review the decision. It cannot be said that the disputes whose subject matter is above the appeal limit but below five hundred eighty one thousand Turkish liras
are entirely insignificant from the monetary standpoint.
In this regard, in case of a tax, full judgment or annulment case, which cannot be considered insignificant in terms of its
amount, if a decision is made against the plaintiff by the regional administrative court for the first time, the inability to
review this decision due to the rule imposes an excessive burden on the people, and the plaintiffs have the right to request the review of the decision in order to reduce the workload of the Council of State. The balance between their interests in using it is disturbed against the plaintiffs. For this reason, the inability to appeal against the decision of the regional administrative court, which ruled against the plaintiffs for the first time in all tax cases, full jurisdiction cases and cases arising from administrative procedures, the subject matter of which is less than five hundred eighty one thousand Turkish liras, imposes a disproportionate limitation on the right to request the review of the decision.
The Constitutional Court also invalidated the remaining part of the clause in accordance with the paragraph (4) of
Article 43 of the Law No. 6216 on the Establishment and Rules of Procedures of the Constitutional Court, as the remaining part of the clause remained irrelevant due to the validation of the section of “subject matter exceeding one hundred thousand Turkish Liras”.
The validation judgment will enter into force 9 months after 13/10/2023, the date of its publication in the Official Gazette.
