Due to the Covid-19 epidemic, which was declared as a pandemic by the World Health Organization, measures have been taken by the Turkish judicial system to prevent any loss of legal rights. One of the key measures outlined below is related to the time limitations.
The time limitations in legal proceedings in Turkey were suspended until the 30th of April 2020 by the provisional Article 1 of Law number 7226, published on the 26th of March 2020 in the Turkish official gazette. After the suspension, “The Decree to Extend the Suspension Period to Prevent the Loss of Legal Rights” was issued and published on 30th of April 2020 on the Turkish official gazette number 31114. Within this decree, the date of the suspension extended to 15th of June 2020.
The scope of the time limitations as stated in provisional Article 1 of Law number 7226 is:
- All time limits regarding origination, exercise and termination of any rights, involving filing a case, initiating enforcement proceedings, submitting applications, complaints, notices, objections, statute of limitations, deadline of mandatory administrative applications, in addition to these time limitations which are regulated under the Administrative Procedure Law number 2577, the Criminal Procedure Law number 5271 and the Code of Civil Procedures Law number 6100 and time limitation for mediation processes are suspended from 13th of March 2020 until 30th of April 2020.
- All the time limits in relation to Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law and other relevant regulations and proceedings, the time limits which were set by the Judge or enforcement and bankruptcy officers, (excluding the child maintenance payments), all the transactions proceedings including new files in relation to the enforcement and bankruptcy offices and all the interim attachment proceedings are suspended from 22nd of March 2020 to 30th of April 2020.
Finally, with the above-mentioned decree, the new date is specified as 15th of June for time limitations