As known, pursuant to Provisionary Article 1 of the Law No. 7226 Amending Certain Codes dated 26 March 2020 ("Law"), judicial time limitations were suspended until 30 April 2020 (including this date). With the Presidential Resolution Numbered 2480 Extending the Suspension on Judicial Time Limitations in Order to Prevent Any Loss of Right ("Resolution") which is published in the Official Gazette dated 30 April 2020, the suspension of judicial time limitations has been extended until June 15, 2020 (including this date). The principles of the Resolution, which is mentioned to be reassessed if the risk of the pandemic previously disappears, are summarized below.

In this regard, the following time limitations are subject to extended suspension: (i) periods to initiate a lawsuit or an execution procedure, complaint, appeal, warning, notification; statute of limitation; lapse of time; mandatory administrative application periods (ii) periods granted for parties by the laws containing provisions on procedural law, or periods granted by the judge, pursuant to those laws, (iii) periods regarding the alternative dispute resolution methods including mediation and (iv) periods governed by the Execution and Bankruptcy Law and other laws on execution.

The judicial time periods that fifteen or less days remain to the last date, as of the begining of the suspension period, will be considered to have been extended for fifteen days beginning from 16 June 2020.

Also, hearings before the domestic courts and regional courts were postponed until 15 June 2020 by the decision of Council of Judges and Prosecutors. Decision regarding the hearings before the Council of State and Court of Cassation shall be made by board of head of chambers of each.

On the other hand, the exempted judicial time limitations from both the Law and the Resolution are mainly: the statute of time on offense and penalty or misdemeanors and administrative penalties; periods regarding protection measures pursuant to Code of Criminal Procedure; and periods on the acts to fulfill the interim measures pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure.

You may access the Turkish version of the Resolution here.

Originally published 30 April, 2020

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